Datasets:

Siki-77

/

news_3class

like 0

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

Business

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

Business

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

Business

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

Business

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

Science_and_Techology

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

Sports

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

Business

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

Science_and_Techology

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

Sports

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

Science_and_Techology

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

Business

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

Business

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

Business

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

Business

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

Business

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

Sports

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

Sports

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

Science_and_Techology

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

Business

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

Sports

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

Sports

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

Business

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

Sports

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

Science_and_Techology

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

Business

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

Business

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

Sports

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

Science_and_Techology

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

Science_and_Techology

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

Business

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

Business

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

Business

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

Science_and_Techology

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

Business

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

Business

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

Sports

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

Sports

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

Science_and_Techology

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

Business

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

Business

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

Sports

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

Science_and_Techology

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

Science_and_Techology

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

Business

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

Science_and_Techology

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

Business

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

Business

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

Sports

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

Business

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

Business

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

Business

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

Sports

bmw to recall faulty diesel cars bmw is to recall all cars equipped with a faulty diesel fuel-injection pump supplied by parts maker robert bosch. the faulty part does not represent a safety risk and the recall only affects pumps made in december and january. bmw said that it was too early to say how many cars were affected or how much the recall would cost. the german company is to extend a planned production break at one of its plants due to the faulty bosch part. the dingolfing site will now be closed all next week instead of for just two days. the additional three-day stoppage will mean a production loss of up to 3 600 vehicles bmw said adding that it was confident it could make up the numbers later. bosch has stopped production of the part but expects to restart by 2 february. the faulty component does not represent a safety risk but causes the motor to stall after a significant amount of mileage. when asked if bmw would be seeking compensation from bosch the carmaker s chief executive helmut panke said: we will first solve the problem before talking about who will pay . audi and mercedes benz were also supplied with the defective diesel fuel-injection pumps but neither of them have to recall any vehicles. a spokesman for daimlerchrysler parent company of mercedes benz said it will however have to halt some production. it is to close the mercedes factory in sindelfingen on monday and tuesday. audi said it had been hit by production bottlenecks due to a shortage of unaffected bosch parts.

Business

mixed signals from french economy the french economy picked up speed at the end of 2004 official figures show - but still looks set to have fallen short of the government s hopes. according to state statistics body insee growth for the three months to december was a seasonally-adjusted 0.7-0.8% ahead of the 0.6% forecast. if confirmed that would be the best quarterly showing since early 2002. it leaves gdp up 2.3% for the full year but short of the 2.5% which the french government had predicted. despite the apparent shortfall in annual economic growth the good quarterly figures - a so-called flash estimate - mark a continuing trend of improving indicators for the health of the french economy. the government is reiterating a 2.5% target for 2005 while the european central bank is making positive noises for the 12-nation eurozone as a whole. also on friday france s industrial output for december was released showing 0.7% growth. the numbers are good said david naude economist at deutsche bank. they send a positive signal of a rebound in output... and open the way for a continuation in that trend into the new year. service sector activity improved in january hitting a seven-month high. but unemployment remains high at about 10%.

Business

german bidder in talks with lse deutsche boerse bosses have held constructive professional and friendly talks with the london stock exchange (lse) its chief has said. werner seifert met lse chief executive clara furse amid rumours the german group may raise its bid to £1.5bn ($2.9bn) from its initial £1.3bn offer. however rival suitor euronext also upped the ante in the bid battle. ahead of talks with the lse on friday the pan-european bourse said it may be prepared to make its offer in cash. the paris-based exchange owner of liffe in london is reported to be ready to raise £1.4bn to fund a bid. the news came as deutsche boerse held its third meeting with the lse since its bid approach in december which was turned down by the london exchange for undervaluing the business. however the lse did agree to leave the door open for talks to find out whether a significantly-improved proposal would be in the interests of lse s shareholders and customers. in the meantime euronext which combines the paris amsterdam and lisbon stock exchanges also began talks with the lse. in a statement on thursday euronext said any offer was likely to be solely in cash but added that: there can be no assurances at this stage that any offer will be made. a deal with either bidder would create the biggest stock market operator in europe and the second biggest in the world after the new york stock exchange. however neither side has made a formal offer for the lse with sources claiming such a step may still be weeks away. deutsche boerse could also face mounting opposition to a bid at home. among sweeteners reported to have been discussed by mr seifert with ms furse were plans to move the management of its cash and eurex derivatives market to london as well as two members of its executive board. but hans reckers a board member of germany s central bank the bundesbank said that cash trading should also remain in frankfurt something deutsche boerse could move to the uk. it is not just the headquarters of the boerse but also important market segments that must stay permanently in frankfurt. this has special importance for the business activities of the banks and the consultants he said. local government officials in frankfurt s state of hessen have also spoken out against the move. it is our wish that the headquarters stay here to maintain frankfurt s standing as the number one financial centre in continental europe alois rhiel its minister for economic affairs added.

Business

yeading face newcastle in fa cup premiership side newcastle united face a trip to ryman premier league leaders yeading in the fa cup third round. the game - arguably the highlight of the draw - is a potential money-spinner for non-league yeading who beat slough in the second round. conference side exeter city who knocked out doncaster on saturday will travel to old trafford to meet holders manchester united in january. arsenal were drawn at home to stoke and chelsea will play host to scunthorpe. the only other non-league side in the draw are hinckley united who held brentford to a goalless draw on sunday. they will meet league one leaders luton if they win their replay against martin allen s team at griffin park. a number of premiership teams face difficult away games against championship sides on the weekend of 8/9 january. third-placed everton visit plymouth liverpool travel to burnley crystal palace go to sunderland fulham face carling cup semi-finalists watford bolton meet ipswich while aston villa were drawn against sheffield united. premiership strugglers norwich blackburn west brom are away at west ham cardiff and preston north end respectively. southampton visit northampton having already beaten the league two side in the carling cup earlier this season. middlesbrough were drawn away against either swindon or notts county while spurs entertain brighton at white hart lane. arsenal v stoke swindon/notts co v middlesbrough man utd v exeter plymouth v everton leicester v blackpool derby v wigan sunderland v crystal palace wolves v millwall yeading v newcastle hull v colchester tottenham v brighton reading v stockport/swansea birmingham v leeds hartlepool v boston milton keynes dons v peterborough oldham v man city chelsea v scunthorpe cardiff v blackburn charlton v rochdale west ham v norwich sheff utd v aston villa preston v west brom rotherham v yeovil burnley v liverpool bournemouth v chester coventry v crewe watford v fulham ipswich v bolton portsmouth v gillingham northampton v southampton qpr v nottm forest luton v hinckley/brentford matches to be played on weekend of 8/9 january.

Sports

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

Business

us gives foreign firms extra time foreign firms have been given an extra year to meet tough new corporate governance regulations imposed by the us stock market watchdog. the securities and exchange commission has extended the deadline to get in line with the rules until 15 july 2006. many foreign firms had protested that the sec was imposing an unfair burden. the new rules are the result of the sarbanes-oxley act part of the us clean-up after corporate scandals such as enron and worldcom. section 404 of the sox act as the legislation is nicknamed calls for all firms to certify that their financial reporting is in line with us rules. big us firms already have to meet the requirements but smaller ones and foreign-based firms which list their shares on us stock markets originally had until the middle of this year. over the past few months delegations of european and other business leaders have been heading to the sec s washington dc headquarters to protest. they say the burden is too expensive and the timescale too short and some particularly the uk s cbi warned that companies would choose to let their us listings drop rather than get in line with section 404. the latest delegation from the cbi met sec officials on wednesday just before the decision to relax the deadline was announced. i think this signifies a change of heart at the sec cbi director-general sir digby jones told the bbc s today programme. they have been listening to us and to many overseas companies who have reminded america what globalisation really means: that they can t make these rules in isolation. the sec said it had taken into consideration the fact that foreign companies were already working to meet more onerous financial reporting rules in their home countries. the european union in particular was imposing new international financial reporting standards in 2005 it noted. i don t underestimate the effort (compliance) will require... but this extension will provide additional time for those issuers to take a good hard look at their internal controls said donald nicolaisen the sec s chief accountant.

Business

bt offers free net phone calls bt is offering customers free internet telephone calls if they sign up to broadband in december. the christmas give-away entitles customers to free telephone calls anywhere in the uk via the internet. users will need to use bt s internet telephony software known as bt communicator and have a microphone and speakers or headset on their pc. bt has launched the promotion to show off the potential of a broadband connection to customers. people wanting to take advantage of the offer will need to be a bt together fixed-line customer and will have to sign up to broadband online. the offer will be limited to the first 50 000 people who sign up and there are limitations - the free calls do not include calls to mobiles non-geographical numbers such as 0870 premium numbers or international numbers. bt is keen to provide extra services to its broadband customers. people already using bt communicator have found it by far the most convenient way of making a call if they are at their pc said andrew burke director of value-added services at bt retail. as more homes get high-speed access providers are increasingly offering add-ons such as cheap net calls. broadband and telephony are attractive to customers and bt wants to make sure it is in the first wave of services said ian fogg an analyst with jupiter research. bt communicator had a quiet launch in the summer and now bt is waving the flag a bit more for it he added. bt has struggled to maintain its market share of broadband subscribers as more competitors enter the market. reports say that bt has lost around 10% of market share over the last year down from half of broadband users to less than 40%. bt is hoping its latest offer can persuade more people to jump on the broadband bandwagon. it currently has 1.3 million broadband subscribers.

Science_and_Techology

ad sales boost time warner profit quarterly profits at us media giant timewarner jumped 76% to $1.13bn (£600m) for the three months to december from $639m year-earlier. the firm which is now one of the biggest investors in google benefited from sales of high-speed internet connections and higher advert sales. timewarner said fourth quarter sales rose 2% to $11.1bn from $10.9bn. its profits were buoyed by one-off gains which offset a profit dip at warner bros and less users for aol. time warner said on friday that it now owns 8% of search-engine google. but its own internet business aol had has mixed fortunes. it lost 464 000 subscribers in the fourth quarter profits were lower than in the preceding three quarters. however the company said aol s underlying profit before exceptional items rose 8% on the back of stronger internet advertising revenues. it hopes to increase subscribers by offering the online service free to timewarner internet customers and will try to sign up aol s existing customers for high-speed broadband. timewarner also has to restate 2000 and 2003 results following a probe by the us securities exchange commission (sec) which is close to concluding. time warner s fourth quarter profits were slightly better than analysts expectations. but its film division saw profits slump 27% to $284m helped by box-office flops alexander and catwoman a sharp contrast to year-earlier when the third and final film in the lord of the rings trilogy boosted results. for the full-year timewarner posted a profit of $3.36bn up 27% from its 2003 performance while revenues grew 6.4% to $42.09bn. our financial performance was strong meeting or exceeding all of our full-year objectives and greatly enhancing our flexibility chairman and chief executive richard parsons said. for 2005 timewarner is projecting operating earnings growth of around 5% and also expects higher revenue and wider profit margins. timewarner is to restate its accounts as part of efforts to resolve an inquiry into aol by us market regulators. it has already offered to pay $300m to settle charges in a deal that is under review by the sec. the company said it was unable to estimate the amount it needed to set aside for legal reserves which it previously set at $500m. it intends to adjust the way it accounts for a deal with german music publisher bertelsmann s purchase of a stake in aol europe which it had reported as advertising revenue. it will now book the sale of its stake in aol europe as a loss on the value of that stake.

Business

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

Business

virus poses as christmas e-mail security firms are warning about a windows virus disguising itself as an electronic christmas card. the zafi.d virus translates the christmas greeting on its subject line into the language of the person receiving infected e-mail. anti-virus firms speculate that this multilingual ability is helping the malicious program spread widely online. anti-virus firm sophos said that 10% of the e-mail currently on the net was infected with the zafi virus. like many other windows viruses zafi-d plunders microsoft outlook for e-mail addresses and then uses mail-sending software to despatch itself across the web to new victims. to be infected users must open up the attachment travelling with the message which bears the code for the malicious bug. the attachment on the e-mail poses as an electronic christmas card but anyone opening it will simply get a crude image of two smiley faces. the virus subject line says merry christmas and translates this into one of 15 languages depending of the final suffix of the e-mail address the infected message has been sent to. the message in the body of the e-mail reads: happy holidays and this too is translated. on infected machines the virus tries to disable anti-virus and firewall software and opens up a backdoor on the pc to hand over control to the writer of the virus. the virus is thought to have spread most widely in south america italy spain bulgaria and hungary. the original zafi virus appeared in april this year. we have seen these hoaxes for several christmases already and personally i prefer traditional pen and paper cards and we recommend this to all our clients too said mikko hypponen who heads f-secure s anti-virus team.

Science_and_Techology

indonesians face fuel price rise indonesia s government has confirmed it is considering raising fuel prices by as much as 30%. millions of indonesians use kerosene for basic cooking and prices have been heavily subsidised for years. president susilo bambang yudhoyono s government has said it wants to curb fuel subsidies and direct the money into aid programmes for the poor. but critics argue cutting subsidies will hurt the poorer families that his government says it wants to help. millions of people were left homeless in indonesia aceh s region following the earthquake and tsunami disaster in late december. indonesia pays subsidies to importers in order to stabilise domestic fuel prices but higher oil prices have forced the government to spend more on holding prices down. it spent 59.2 trillion rupiah ($6.58bn; £3.5bn) on fuel subsidies in 2004 a sum far in excess of its original projection of 14.5 trillion rupiah. since president yudhoyono s government came to power in october it has indicated its intention of raising domestic fuel prices by cutting subsidies. the (january to march) quarter of this year is the best time for us to increase fuel prices said sri mulyani indrawati state minister for national development planning. we are still considering if a 30% hike is suitable at the moment. the sooner the better for the state budget. the bbc s correspondent in jakarta rachel harvey told world business report that there was likely to be a strong public reaction to any price rise. the big question is whether they go for one big short sharp shock and raise prices between 20% and 30% or whether they try to stagger it she said. indonesia s previous government led by president megawati sukarnoputri also attempted to cut subsidies in 2003 but was forced to back down in the face of public protests.

Business

business confidence dips in japan business confidence among japanese manufacturers has weakened for the first time since march 2003 the quarterly tankan survey has found. slower economic growth rising oil prices a stronger yen and weaker exports were blamed for the fall. december s confidence level was below that seen in september the bank of japan said. however september s reading was the strongest for 13 years. the economy is at a pause but unlikely to fall the economy minister said. it will feel a bit slower (next year) than this year and growth may be a bit more gentle but the situation is that the recovery will continue said economy minister heizo takenaka. in the bank of japan s december survey the balance of big manufacturers saying business conditions are better minus those saying they are worse was 22 down from 26 in september. japan s economy grew by just 0.1% in the three months to september according revised data issued this month. with the recovery slowing the world s second biggest economy is now expected grow by 0.2% in 2004. the tankan index is based on a survey of 10 227 firms. big manufacturers were even more pessimistic about the first quarter of 2005; their views suggest the march reading could go as low as 15 - still in positive territory but weaker. the dollar s decline has strengthened the yen making japanese exports more expensive in the us. china s attempts to cool down its fast-growing economy have also hit japanese industry s sales abroad. confidence among non-manufacturers was unchanged in the final quarter of 2004 but it is forecast to drop one point in the march survey. nonetheless japanese firms have been stepping up capital investment and the survey found the pace is quickening. companies reported they expect to invest 7.7% more in the year to march 2005 than the previous year - up from expectations of 6.1% increase in the september tankan.

Business

m&s cuts prices by average of 24% marks & spencer has cut prices in london and the regions by an average of 24% according to research from a city investment bank. dresdner kleinwort wasserstein said: in spite of the snow in the uk it still feels very early to be cutting prices of spring merchandise. stuart rose head of m&s said last year its prices were too high. we are bringing in ranges at new price points to compete against mid-market retailers like next said m&s. next is one of m&s s biggest competitors and the move may force it to lower prices. drkw said the cuts are either to clear stock or could indicate a longer term step change in pricing in certain areas at m&s. either way this cannot be good news for m&s margin it added. we have brought in quite a lot of new clothing at new price points as part of stuart rose s strategy of quality style -and price said the m&s spokesman. many analysts believe february is proving to be a difficult month for retailers and british retail consortium figures due in a few weeks are expected to reflect the tough trading environment. separately investment bank goldman sachs produced reseach showing that a basket of 35 m&s goods is now 11% above the high-street average compared with 43% higher last year. it has been a strange week for m&s which on tuesday received a statement from philip green the billionaire bhs owner confirming he was not rebidding for the company. this was followed the same day by mark paulsmeier a south african financier issuing a press release saying his paulsmeier group was interested in m&s. a sudden spike in m&s s share price followed. however an m&s spokesman said on sunday it had no evidence that mr paulsmeier had lined up sufficient finance for a bid. he also said the takeover panel and the uk s financial watchdog the financial services authority had been in touch with m&s at the beginning of the week to find out what it knew about the paulsmeier developments.

Business

mobiles rack up 20 years of use mobile phones in the uk are celebrating their 20th anniversary this weekend. britain s first mobile phone call was made across the vodafone network on 1 january 1985 by veteran comedian ernie wise. in the 20 years since that day mobile phones have become an integral part of modern life and now almost 90% of britons own a handset. mobiles have become so popular that many people use their handset as their only phone and rarely use a landline. the first ever call over a portable phone was made in 1973 in new york but it took 10 years for the first commercial mobile service to be launched. the uk was not far behind the rest of the world in setting up networks in 1985 that let people make calls while they walked. the first call was made from st katherine s dock to vodafone s head office in newbury which at the time was over a curry house. for the first nine days of 1985 vodafone was the only firm with a mobile network in the uk. then on 10 january cellnet (now o2) launched its service. mike caudwell spokesman for vodafone said that when phones were launched they were the size of a briefcase cost about £2 000 and had a battery life of little more than 20 minutes. despite that they were hugely popular in the mid-80s he said. they became a yuppy must-have and a status symbol among young wealthy business folk. this was also despite the fact that the phones used analogue radio signals to communicate which made them very easy to eavesdrop on. he said it took vodafone almost nine years to rack up its first million customers but only 18 months to get the second million. it s very easy to forget that in 1983 when we put the bid document in we were forecasting that the total market would be two million people he said. cellnet was forecasting half that. now vodafone has 14m customers in the uk alone. cellnet and vodafone were the only mobile phone operators in the uk until 1993 when one2one (now t-mobile) was launched. orange had its uk launch in 1994. both newcomers operated digital mobile networks and now all operators use this technology. the analogue spectrum for the old phones has been retired. called global system for mobiles (gsm) this is now the most widely used phone technology on the planet and is used to help more than 1.2 billion people make calls. mr caudwell said the advent of digital technology also helped to introduce all those things such as text messaging and roaming that have made mobiles so popular.

Science_and_Techology

venezuela and china sign oil deal venezuelan president hugo chavez has offered china wide-ranging access to the country s oil reserves. the offer made as part of a trade deal between the two countries will allow china to operate oil fields in venezuela and invest in new refineries. venezuela has also offered to supply 120 000 barrels of fuel oil a month to china. venezuela - the world s fifth largest oil exporter - sells about 60% of its output to the united states. mr chavez s administration which has a strained relationship with the us is trying to diversify sales to reduce its dependence on its largest export market. china s quick-growing economy s need for oil has contributed to record-high oil prices this year along with political unrest in the middle east and supply bottlenecks. oil prices are finishing the year roughly 30% higher than they were in january 2004. in 2004 according to forecasts from the ministry of commerce china s oil imports will be 110m tons up 21% on the previous year. china has been a net importer of oil since the mid 1990 s with more than a third of the oil and gas it consumes coming from abroad. a lack of sufficient domestic production and the need to lessen its dependence on imports from the middle east has meant that china is looking to invest in other potential markets such as latin america. mr chavez who is visiting china said his country would put its many of its oil facilities at the disposal of china. chinese firms would be allowed to operate 15 mature oil fields in the east of venezuela which could produce more than one billion barrels he confirmed. the two countries will also continue a joint venture agreement to produce stocks of the boiler fuel orimulsion. mr chavez has also invited chinese firms to bid for gas exploration contracts which his government will offer next year in the western gulf of venezuela. the two countries also signed a number of other agreements covering other industries including mining.

Business

gardener battles to narrow win jason gardener fought all the way to the line to narrowly claim the men s 60m title at the norwich union indoor trials and aaas championships. the world 60m champion got off to a rolling start and had to dig deep to dip ahead of mark findlay and darren chin who both set personal bests. it was a close race admitted gardener. i stumbled out the blocks but my experience told through. i still feel there s more life in me and i believe i can go faster. gardener s performance in sheffield could have been affected by the news which he heard before his semi-final that his european record had been broken frenchman ronald pognon who will be a real threat at the european championships set a new time of 6.45 one-hundreth of a second faster than gardener s previous mark. favourite delivered a powerful performance to take the women s 60m title in 7.27 seconds. you ll see me in madrid and i feel there is a lot more to come along said the 22-year-old. katherine endacott battled hard to take second and dip under the european qualifying mark. defending champion joice maduaka had pulled out of the final with a chest infection. was on record-breaking form as she stormed to the women s 60m hurdles crown. the 25-year-old set a new british record for the second time in seven days clocking 7.96 seconds to finish ahead of rival diane allahgreen. i m so happy a tearful claxton told bbc sport. all the years i ve been running and i m getting recognition. claxton s time was also good enough to qualify for the european championships. the men s 800m went to form in sheffield as dominated the race from start to finish. the northern ireland athlete went off at a startling pace but had to hold off the challenge of welshman jimmy watkins over the final 200m to win in one minute 47.96 seconds. both mcilory and watkins who set a life-time best of 1:48.32 had already booked their places in madrid and were again well within the qualifying time. i had to go out and go through all the gears before the europeans and i won t run again until then said mcilroy. could not reach the european mark in the women s race as she crossed the line to win in 2:04.45. olympic bronze heptathlon medallist rounded off a useful weekend with two more personal bests in sheffield. the 28-year-old reached 1.80m in the high jump and clocked 8.47secs in the heats of the 60m hurdles. i ve surprised myself said sotherton. i m starting to thrive on the pressure but if i don t perform then it s not the end of the world. pole vaulter made a winning return to major competition after a drugs ban. the trafford athlete who has served a two-year ban after testing positive for anabolic steroids clinched the title with a championship record 4.25m. also set a new championship mark in the men s triple jump title in sheffield. the 26-year-old who has been training in australia over the winter landed 17.30m with his final effort - the longest leap in the world this year. i didn t have a clue said idowu. i ve not jumped indoors before and i just wanted the qualifying mark. but this isn t a bad start and hopefully i ll come back from madrid with a gold medal. nathan douglas continued his steady progress this season as he set a life-time best of 16.76m in second while jonathan moore took third. and resumed their rivalry in the long jump competition both achieving the european standard. commonwealth champion morgan reached a personal best of 7.96m on his very first jump and then promptly retired with a bruised heel. olympian tomlinson tried to play catch up with his six jumps but had to settle for a season s best jump of 7.91m. i was advised not to jump by my doctor and so i m pleased to come here and get the qualifying mark said tomlinson. now based at loughborough sprinted past front runner catherine murphy in the final 100m to steal the women s 400m title. the 21-year-old ran a personal best of 53.45 seconds to win her first indoor title. wall s time was just short of the qualifying mark - something murphy already has. ireland s took the men s title in 46.46 ahead of promising channel islands decathlete dale garland. sudanese 18-year-old rabah yusuf who is seeking british citizenship showed his raw talent as he burst through in third. cleared the required 1.90m to qualify for the european championships and claim the aaas title in the women s high jump. in the men s 3 000m powered to a new personal best of seven minutes 56.86 seconds to defend his aaas title in style. it was the first time in 11 years the eight-minute barrier has been broken at the championships and was just within the european mark. took the women s 1500m aaas title in the absence of kelly holmes. her time of 4:19.11 was not good enough to qualify for madrid but ovens had already opted out of the championships. the men s race was won by who had to fight off a closing pack to claim the title in 3:45.87.

Sports

o driscoll out of scotland game ireland captain brian o driscoll has been ruled out of saturday s rbs six nations clash against scotland. o driscoll was originally named in the starting line-up but has failed to recover from the hamstring injury he picked up in the win over italy. his replacement will be named after training on friday morning. fellow centre gordon d arcy is also struggling with a hamstring injury and he will undergo a fitness test on friday to see if he can play. kevin maggs would be an obvious replacement at centre while shane horgan could also be moved from wing. ulster wing tommy bowe could also be asked to travel with the squad to scotland as a precautionary measure. the only other change to the ireland side sees wasps flanker johnny o connor replacing denis leamy. o connor will be winning his third cap after making his debut in the victory over south africa last november. : murphy horgan tbc d arcy hickie o gara stringer corrigan byrne hayes o kelly o connell s easterby o connor foley. : sheahan horan o callaghan miller g easterby humphreys dempsey.

Sports

moya suffers shock loss fifth seed carlos moya was the first big name to fall at the australian open as he went down to fellow spaniard guillermo garcia-lopez on monday. moya began the year with victory at the chennai open but looked out of sorts from the start in the melbourne heat. garcia-lopez ranked 106 in the world dominated from the outset and withstood a third-set rally from moya to hang on for a 7-5 6-3 3-6 6-3 victory. the 21-year-old plays kevin kim or lee hyuung-taik in the second round. garcia-lopez was delighted with the victory in only his third ever grand slam match. i think this was the most important win of my life as carlos is one of the best players in the world he said. this has given me a lot of confidence. now i feel i can beat all these players. moya said: i was playing well before i came here. it was the perfect preparation but something was wrong today. four-time champion andre agassi began what could be his last australian open with a convincing win over german qualifier dieter kindlmann. the 34-year-old american who had been struggling with a hip injury earlier in the week stormed to a 6-4 6-3 6-0 win. agassi will play france s olivier patience or germany s rainer schuettler - the man he beat in the 2003 final - in the next round. no one was more concerned (about the injury) than myself said eighth seed agassi. i d worked hard to be down here and ready. but the last few days i ve pushed through the injury and it seemed to do pretty good. in other matches world junior champion gael monfils made use of his wild card with a magnificent 1-6 6-3 6-4 7-6 (8-6) win over american robby ginepri. the 2002 champion thomas johansson fought back to beat peter luczak 7-6 (7-5) 4-6 6-3 4-6 6-0 and french open champion gaston gaudio beat justin gimelstob 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 6-3. seeds dominik hrbaty ivan ljubicic and mario ancic made comfortable progress but former french open champion albert costa lost to bjorn phau.

Sports

call for action on internet scam phone companies are not doing enough to warn customers about internet rogue-dialling scams according to premium phone line regulator icstis. it has received 45 000 complaints in recent months about dial-up internet connections diverting to premium rate numbers without users knowledge. phone companies refuse to pay compensation because they say calls must be paid for. they must warn people earlier about possible fraud icstis said. people who use dial-up connections can be affected by the scams. without realising a program can be downloaded which diverts internet calls via a premium phone line. victims often fail to notice until they receive an unusually high bill. icstis spokesman rob dwight said: phone companies should get in touch with their customers sooner. if my bill goes over the usual £50 a month i want to know about it straight away - i don t want to be told when it s hit £750. phone companies had the systems in place to spot fraudulent activity and artificially-inflated traffic he said. we alert them to the numbers that we have under investigation and they should be looking out for these numbers he added. telecoms ombudsman elizabeth france said: certainly i would not be surprised to find my credit card company phoning me if i do something out of the ordinary. so i would expect phone companies to be looking to see if they can have a similar approach. the biggest phone company bt says it is doing what it can to monitor fraud and warn people about rogue dialling. its advice to customers is to use call barring if they want to prevent calls to premium lines because under the current system once the call has been made there s little that can be done. gavin patterson group managing director for bt consumer said we do look at customer s calling patterns and we do make interventions when they are out of the ordinary. we re looking at the moment at whether we can improve this. but as bt handled 180 million calls a day monitoring was quite a task in itself he added. the government has ordered a review of premium line services and is likely to say icstis should have more power to deal with rogue diallers in future. at the moment it cannot demand pay-outs on the behalf of customer - it can only close illegal services down. i use free anti-virus software (avg) and free firewall protection (zonealarm). both of these tools have prevented unauthorised access and outgoing calls inadvertently and innocently caused by my daughter s love of music sites. how about isps informing all customers of such facilities the responsibility clearly falls with the customer but many fall prey through simply not knowing how to avoid these issues. ignorance is and always has been an expensive business. does any one know what happens once this fraud has been committed and recognised the phone companies pay the people who obtaining money fraudulently so are these people followed up and prosecuted these diallers are mainly downloaded from sites offering illegal mp3s porn and pirated software. if people didn t visit such sites they d be considerably less at risk. whatever happened to personal responsibility it seems everyone has to be a victim these days! part of the blame has to rest with the manufacturers of home computer operating systems. a secure system should not allow a web page or email to download and install anything without the user s knowledge. these scams are illegal and telephone companies should have nothing to do with them. they should refuse to pay money over to the perpetrators. or are they themselves receiving such good returns that it is in their interest to keep the scam going why don t bt et al block all premium numbers by default and only turn it off at the customer s request to anyone who falls foul of this scam - refuse to pay your telephone provider for these calls. after you notify your telephone provider of these fraudulent transactions they cannot insist on you paying the bill. to do so would be to knowingly assist the fraudsters to commit the fraud. no customers have yet been taken to court for refusing to pay these bills. disable or remove your modem and use broadband instead - then you have nothing to worry about. or buy some decent firewall software and anti-virus. you would not walk out in the freezing cold without a coat - you would not drive your car without any insurance - so why not protect your pc stop blaming the phone companies - it s not their fault! i was very impressed with our phone company recently. i had kept ringing a hotline number for kylie tickets and next day they rang back to ask if i was aware there were 40-odd calls to the same number. great service. and i got the tickets as well! i have a colleague who has fallen victim to this kind of scam. he informed the phone company about it they subsequently put a block on premium rate numbers. three months later another huge bill of over £1 000 came in - the block apparently didn t work and he still has to pay for it even though a block was in place. phone companies are probably quite happy for their customers to be hit with a huge bill otherwise they d be taking extra steps to prevent this kind of problem. i have been scammed of £139. the operator will do nothing about this and to add insult to injury i was charged vat by the government. premium rate numbers have been subject to various scams ever since they were invented. one example was where thieves would set up a premium rate number and then dial it day and night from phones whose quarterly bills were never paid. the telephone company was the victim here and you can bet that loophole was blocked very quickly. i know people who have run up large bills despite being it-literate. from talking to bt in belfast i believe that they will shortly be giving out a free application that can stop you dialling expensive numbers without knowing. it s not the fault of phone companies and at last they are doing something about it. it s about time that the profiteering by the legitimate phone companies came to an end mainly by doing away with dial-up altogether and bring broadband down to the same price as dial-up! not only will this ruin things for the dialler scammers but also allow people to update and upgrade their security more easily and quickly. i haven t fallen victim to a rogue-dialling scam but i think you re seriously remiss in not pointing out that the vast majority of these scams arise from people trying to access services purporting to provide free pornography. in most cases the user is entirely at fault which is probably why the telephone companies are rightly unwilling to refund them. my telephone supplier did not inform me that my monthly bill had risen from its normal £3 to £5 to £320. this was because of the scam. they simply billed me. what particularly galls me over and above having over £300 stolen is that the supplier and the government (through vat) are profiting from this crime and will not reimburse me their portion of my losses. how about an automatic monthly cap of say £20 on premium rate calls that you would have to contact your provider to have lifted that way you could use legitimate premium rate numbers while limiting fraudulent usage. at least any disputed amount would be limited far easier for a telecoms operator to write off £20 than it is £750. a few years back i was also the target of such scams but thank god i have already upgraded to broadband and nothing was connected to my modem so all i heard was the sound of an attempted connection. how about home users take some responsibility and ensure their anti-virus and firewall software is up to date that should prevent the vast majority of these scams.

Science_and_Techology

no seasonal lift for house market a swathe of figures have provided further evidence of a slowdown in the uk property market. the council of mortgage lenders (cml) british bankers association (bba) and building societies association (bsa) all said mortgage lending was slowing. cml figures showed gross lending fell by 4% in november as the number of people buying new homes fell. elsewhere the bba added underlying mortgage lending rose by £4m in november compared to october s £4.29m. the cml said that loans for new property purchases fell 25% year-on-year to 85 000 - the lowest total seen since february 2003. data from the cml showed lending fell to just over £25bn in november from £25.5bn a year earlier. separate figures from the building societies association showed the value of mortgage approvals -- loans agreed but not yet made -- stood 32% lower than at the same time last year at a seasonally-adjusted £2.98bn. the figures come hot on the heels of new data from property website rightmove which suggested owners must indulge in a winter sale and slash prices by up to 8%. miles shipside commercial director at rightmove said sellers would have to be more realistic with their asking prices to tempt buyers. the average asking price of a home fell by more than £600 from £190 329 in november to £189 733 in december while the length of time it takes to sell a home rose to 81 days from 53 in the summer. rightmove said estate agents were set to enter 2005 with a third more properties on their books than a year ago. even once the quieter holiday period is over sellers will find themselves competing with a lot of other properties on the market. in any business excess supply and low demand means one thing - cut prices mr shipside said. the proof is that some properties that have been appropriately discounted are selling even in the current market. overall asking prices have fallen 3.3% from their july peaks as the equivalent of £6 500 has been cut from an average property. a host of mortgage lenders and economists have predicted that property prices will either fall or stagnate in 2005. what is apparent is a picture of a slowing market but one that should remain stable as we return to more normal volumes of lending over 2005 as a whole cml director general michael coogan said. it s a fairly consistent picture showing that mortgage demand has fallen back again which is consistent with a continuing correction in the housing market investec economist philip shaw said. however the figures do suggest only a modest weakening and we stand by our view that the property market will remain in the doldrums for some time though a collapse is still unlikely.

Business

leeds v saracens (fri) headingley friday 25 february 2000 gmt the tykes have brought in newcastle prop ed kalman and tom mcgee from the borders on loan while fly-half craig mcmullen has joined from narbonne. raphael ibanez is named at hooker for saracens in one of four changes. simon raiwalui and ben russell are also selected in the pack while kevin sorrell comes in at outside centre. - friday s game at headingley got the go-ahead on friday after passing an early pitch inspection. leeds: balshaw; rees christophers bell doherty; mcmullen dickens; mcgee rawlinson gerber; murphy palmer (capt) morgan parks popham. replacements: kalman regan hyde rigney mcmillan rock vickerman. saracens: bartholomeusz; castaignede sorrell harris vaikona; jackson bracken; yates ibanez visagie; raiwalui fullarton; randell russell vyvyan (capt). replacements: cairns lloyd broster chesney johnston rauluni little.

Sports

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

Business

serena ends sania mirza s dream sania mirza the first indian woman to reach the third round of a grand slam tennis event has lost to women s favourite serena williams. the 18-year-old mirza who got a wild card entry into the australian open in melbourne lost to williams 1-6 4-6 in the third round. williams took just 56 minutes to defeat mirza and sail into the fourth round. the only other indian woman to win a match at a grand slam is nirupama vaidyanathan. vaidyanathan made it to the second round of the australian open in 1998. playing the biggest match of her life mirza made little impact on williams in the early stages of the game. but the teenager showed more confidence in the second set and engaged the seventh-seeded williams in some well contested rallies. mirza a junior wimbledon doubles title winner became the first indian woman to reach the third round of a grand slam tennis event when she beat hungarian petra mandula on wednesday. i m really excited. i was confident but i didn t think it was going to be that easy mirza said after her second round win. my aim was to win a round here. when i did that i was so relieved there was no pressure. tennis is not a particularly popular sport in india but a number of indians watched the live telecast of the match between mirza and williams. mirza who lives in the southern indian city of hyderabad known for producing a host of top indian cricketers turned professional two years ago. she says she was considered too small when she went for her first tennis classes as a six-year-old girl. then finally [the coach] called my parents up and said the way she hits the ball i ve never seen a six-year-old hit a ball like that mirza told the associated press.

Sports

manufacturing recovery slowing uk manufacturing grew at its slowest pace in one-and-a-half years in january according to a survey. the chartered institute of purchasing and supply (cips) said its purchasing manager index (pmi) fell to 51.8 from a revised 53.3 in december. but despite missing forecasts of 53.7 the pmi number remained above 50 - indicating expansion in the sector. the cips said that the strong pound had dented exports while rising oil and metals prices had kept costs high. the survey added that rising input prices and cooling demand had deterred factory managers from hiring new workers in an effort to cut costs. that triggered the second successive monthly fall in the cips employment index to 48.3 - its lowest level since june 2003. the survey is more upbeat than official figures - which suggest that manufacturing is in recession - but analysts said the survey did suggest that the manufacturing recovery was running out of steam. it appears that the uk is in a two-tier economy again said prebon yamane economist lena komileva. you have weakness in manufacturing which i think would concern policymakers at the bank of england.

Business

parmalat boasts doubled profits parmalat the italian food group at the centre of one of europe s most painful corporate scandals has reported a doubling in profit. its pre-tax earnings in the fourth quarter were 77m euros (£53m; $100m) up from 38m in the same period of 2003. less welcome was the news that the firm had been fined 11m euros for having violated takeover rules five years ago. the firm sought bankruptcy protection in december 2003 after disclosing a 4bn-euro hole in its accounts. overall the company s debt is close to 12bn euros and is falling only slowly. its brands well-known in italy and overseas have continued to perform strongly however and have barely lost revenue since the scandal broke. but a crucial factor for the company s future is the legal unwinding of its intensely complex financial position. on tuesday the company s administrator turnaround expert enrico bondi sued morgan stanley its former banker to return 136m euros relating to a 2003 bond deal. that brought to 49 the number of banks that mr bondi has sued a mass of legal action that could bring in as much as 3bn euros. the company has also sued former auditors and financial advisors for damages. and criminal cases against the company s former management are proceeding separately.

Business

video phones act as dating tools technologies from e-mail to net chatrooms instant messaging and mobiles have proved to be a big pull with those looking for love. the lure once was that you could hide behind the technology but now video phones are in on the act to add vision. hundreds have submitted a mobile video profile to win a place at the world s first video mobile dating event. the top 100 meet their match on 30 november at london s institute of contemporary arts (ica). the event organised by the 3g network 3 could catch on as the trend for unusual dating events like speed dating continues. it s the beginning of the end of the blind date as we know it said graeme oxby 3 s marketing director. the response has been so promising that 3 says it is planning to launch a proper commercial dating service soon. hundreds of hopefuls submitted their profiles and special booths were set up in a major london department store for two weeks where expert tips were given on how to visually improve their chances. the 100 most popular contestants voted by the public will gather at the ica in separate rooms and meet by phone. dating services and other more adult match-making services are proving to be a strong stream of revenue worth millions for mobile companies. whether it does actually provide an interesting match for video phone technologies remains to be seen. flic everett journalist and dating expert for company magazine and the daily express thinks technology has been liberating for some nervous soul-mate seekers. there are currently about 1.3 million video phones in use in the uk and three times more single people in britain than there were 30 years ago with more people buying video mobiles 3g dating could be the basis for a successful and safe way to meet people. one of the problems with video phones is people don t really know what to video. it is a weird technology. we have not quite worked out what it is for. this gives it a focus and a useful one she told bbc news. i would never have thought online dating would take off the way it did she said. lots of people find it easier to be honest writing e-mail or text than face-to-face. lots people are quite shy and they feel vulnerable. when you are writing it comes directly onto the page so they tend to be more honest. but the barrier that comes with sms chat and online match-making is that the person behind the profile may not be who they really are. scare stories have put people off as a result according to ms everett. many physical clues body language odd twitches are obviously missing with sms and online dating services. still images do not necessarily provide all those necessary cues. it could really take off because you do get the whole package. with a static e-mail picture you don t know who the person is behind it is. so checking out a potential date by video phone also gives singletons a different kind of barrier an extra layer of protection; a case of wlts before wltm. if you are trapped in real-life blind date context you can t get away and you feel embarrassed. with a video meeting you really have the barrier of the phone so if you don t like them you don t have to suffer the embarrassment. there is a more serious side to this new use of technology though. with money being made through more adult-themes content and services which let people meet and chat the revenue streams for mobile carriers will grow with 3g thinks paolo pescatore mobile industry specialist for analysts idc. wireless is a medium that is being exploited with a number of features and services. one is chatting and the dating element is key there he said. the foundation has been set by sms and companies are using media like mms and video to grow the market further. but carriers need to be wary and ensure that if they do launch such 3g dating services they ensure mechanism are in place to monitor and be aware who is registers and accesses these services on regular basis he cautioned. in july vodafone introduced a content control system to protect children from such adult content. the move was as a result of a code of practice agreed by the uk s six largest mobile phone operators in january. the system means vodafone users need to prove they are over 18 before firewalls are lifted on explicit websites or chat rooms dealing with adult themes. the impetus was the growing number of people with handsets that could access the net and the growth of 3g technologies.

Science_and_Techology

india calls for fair trade rules india which attends the g7 meeting of seven leading industrialised nations on friday is unlikely to be cowed by its newcomer status. in london on thursday ahead of the meeting india s finance minister lashed out at the restrictive trade policies of the g7 nations. he objected to subsidies on agriculture that make it hard for developing nations like india to compete. he also called for reform of the united nations the world bank and the imf. palaniappan chidambaram india s finance minister argued that these organisations need to take into account the changing world order given india and china s integration into the global economy. he said the issue is not globalisation but the terms of engagement in globalisation. mr chidambaram is attending the g7 meeting as part of the g20 group of nations which account for two thirds of the world s population. at a conference on developing enterprise hosted by uk finance minister gordon brown on friday he said that he was in favour of floating exchange rates because they help countries cope with economic shocks. a flexible exchange rate is one more channel for absorbing both positive and negative shocks he told the conference. india along with china brazil south africa and russia has been invited to take part in the g7 meeting taking place in london on friday and saturday. china is expected to face renewed pressure to abandon its fixed exchange rate which g7 nations in particular the us have blamed for a surge in cheap chinese exports. some countries have tried to use fixed exchange rates. i do not wish to make any judgements mr chidambaram said. separately the imf warned on thursday that india s budget deficit was too large and would hamper the country s economic growth which it forecast to be around 6.5% in the year to march 2005. in the year to march 2004 the indian economy grew by 8.5%.

Business

celts savour grand slam prospect the six nations has heralded a new order in northern hemisphere rugby this year and wales and ireland rather than traditional big guns france and england face a potential grand slam play-off in three weeks time. but before that game in cardiff wales must get past scotland at murrayfield while ireland face the not insignificant task of a home fixture with the mercurial french. no-one knows what mood france will be in at lansdowne road on 12 march - sublime as in the first half against wales or ridiculous like in the same period against england at twickenham. but how the mighty have fallen. england sat on rugby s summit 15 months ago as world champions and 2003 grand slam winners. but they have lost nine of their 14 matches since that heady night in sydney. and they face the ignominy of what could amount to a wooden spoon play-off against italy in a fortnight. england are enduring their worst run in the championship since captain richard hill was dumped in favour of mike harrison after three straight losses in 1987. coach andy robinson who took over from the successful sir clive woodward in september has lost a phalanx of world cup stars. and he is enduring the toughest of teething problems in bedding down his own style with a new team. the same year that england ruled the roost a woeful wales lost all five matches in the six nations. and they won only two games against scotland and italy in 2004. wales most recent championship title was in 1994 and their last grand slam success came in 1978 in the era of gareth edwards phil bennett jpr williams et al. but welsh rugby fans remain on permanent tenterhooks for the blossoming of a new golden age. after several false dawns coach mike ruddock may have come up with the team and philosophy to match expectations. the fresh verve is inspired by skipper gareth thomas now out with a broken thumb accurate kicking from either fly-half stephen jones or centre gavin henson a rampant martyn williams leading the way up front and exciting runners in the guise of henson and shane williams. ireland coach eddie o sullivan and captain brian o driscoll have got their side buzzing too and they are close to shedding the nearly-men tag that has dogged them for the past few years. the men from the emerald isle have been six nations runners-up for the past two years to france and england. but they have not won the title since 1985 and last clinched a grand slam in 1948. as for scotland they have struggled this decade and the 2004 wooden spoon winners have not been in the top two since they lifted the title in 1999. italy continue the elusive search for their first six nations away win and can still only account for the scalps of scotland (twice) and wales since joining the elite in 2000. coach john kirwan is a passionate and dedicated believer in the azzurri but is lacking in raw materials. and so to france. brilliant one minute inept the next. but the reigning champions could quite easily turn on the style in dublin and end up winning the title through the back door. ireland though have won three times in their last five meetings. welsh romantics would probably prefer a glorious victory in the celtic showdown to crown their grand slam. but given that ireland have beaten wales in four of their last five meetings the welsh legions are likely to be behind les bleus on 12 march.

Sports

apple mac mini gets warm welcome the mac mini has been welcomed by apple fans industry experts and pc users. the release of the tiny low-cost machine is seen as a good move for apple which currently has a small share of the desktop computer market. mac watchers and some analysts say the mac mini will go a long way to help apple appeal to the mass of consumers. they speculate that the mac mini will be bought by ipod owners and those wanting an easy-to-use and administer second home computer. it s the bravest move they have made yet said jonny evans news editor at macworld magazine. mr evans said the combination of low cost small size and huge numbers of ipod users could make it a big success. he thought that the machine would appeal to those that like apple technology but who before now have balked at paying high prices for its hardware. it s deeply affordable he said. plus you know that you do not get viruses or all of the associated problems. already he said pc owning friends had declared that they would be buying one. interest in the new products launched at macworld expo was so strong that websites for apple s store and the show struggled to cope with demand. according to response statistics gathered by netcraft many visiting the apple store in the wake of mr jobs speech suffered lengthy response times. the macworld expo site was completely overwhelmed and went offline. i think fundamentally it s a good idea because it s cheap even for a pc said nick ross deputy labs editor at pc pro. apple s work on making things easy to use would also help the mac mini win fans he said. i think people expect it just to work now and really it should hesaid. the mac mini could find a role in homes that need a second computer that is easy to install and administer he said. for browsing the web e-mail and all kinds of basic duties it s going to be absolutely adequate said mr ross. ian fogg broadband and personal technology analyst at jupiter research agreed that the mac mini could be very popular. apple has been hoping that sales of the ipod will have a halo effect on the sales of the mac he said. before now he said apple has been seen as a premium brand. but he said the mac mini changed that perception. it s a particularly good price when you see that it s apple that is doing it he said. apple expects the mac mini to sell for £339 in the uk and $499 in the us. adding extras such as a larger hard drive more memory and networking options will increase the basic price. it will go on sale from 22 january. for consumers interested in style design and small size - which is what the majority of ipod customers are interested in - it s a natural next step said mr fogg. apple has traditionally done well in the market that the mac mini is aimed at said mr fogg who also expected many pc makers to release copycat devices in reaction. his only misgivings were over how easy other consumers other than ipod owners would find using the machine. he said anyone wanting to use the mac mini with the peripherals from an old computer may find it odd to have something so small and sleek next to a hulking monitor. they d be much more likely to pair a mac mini with a lcd or flat panel monitor which increases the upgrade cost he said. those with flat screens and lcd monitors are likely to have bought them recently and not be in the market for a new machine. there are also questions over whether the mac mini will work with very old peripherals such as display keyboard and mouse. the mac mini also fell short of being a media server that can be a video recorder as well as a store for all the digital music movies and images people accumulate said mr fogg. the mac mini is not quite ready for that yet he said. it does not have the right connectors that fit a tv screen or enough storage. said mr fogg: it s very much a computer. one dissenting opinion came from brian gammage vice-president of research at analysts gartner. he said: i don t think it changes the world. although the mac mini was very cheap for an apple computer it was still expensive compared to many pcs. also he said it appealed in categories that few consumers care about when buying a home computer. the pc world is a pile-em-high sell-em-cheap market he said and all of them are pretty interchangeable. since the days when apple ruled the personal computing world its market share has been on a long slow decline he said. every few years it does something to give its market share a kick then it starts to go back down again said mr gammage. the release of the mac mini fit perfectly with this trend he said.

Science_and_Techology

desailly backs blues revenge trip marcel desailly insists there is no chance of history repeating itself when chelsea take on barcelona on wednesday. the french star was part of the chelsea side crushed 5-1 at the nou camp in the champions league quarter-final second leg in 2000. things will be totally different this time he told bbc sport. now everyone knows about chelsea and is a little bit afraid of them. they are one of the major clubs in europe and the pressure will be on barcelona. chelsea have not played barcelona since that quarter-final tie five years ago. the blues had looked destined to progress after winning the first leg at stamford bridge 3-1 courtesy of two goals from tore andre flo and one by gianfranco zola. but they collapsed in the second leg going down to strikes from rivaldo (2) luis figo dani and patrick kluivert. former chelsea captain desailly who is now playing for al-gharafa in qatar says there is no comparison between that side and the current blues team who are top of the premiership. mentally they are much stronger even though a lot of their players are young the 36-year-old said. we made some mistakes at the nou camp in 2000 - a lot of them were individual mistakes. it would not happen now. this team has a new motivation and a different mentality. world cup winner desailly saw huge changes during his time at stamford bridge. he was signed for £4.6m from ac milan in 1998 by ruud gullit and went on to play under gianluca vialli and claudio ranieri. but the biggest change occurred when billionaire roman abramovich bought the club in 2003. desailly says the russian s arrival helped to instil a winning mentality at the club as well as a demand for success. the whole of chelsea is different now - the chairman the manager and all the players he said. everything is new and there is a huge determination to win. since that game in 2000 chelsea have gained more experience in europe and were very close to reaching the champions league final last season. desailly is one of the most decorated players in the history of football. he won the 1998 world cup and 2000 european championship with france the champions league in 1993 with marseilles and 1994 with ac milan two serie a titles and the fa cup in 2000 with chelsea. he is now winding down his career in qatar alongside the likes of frank lebeouf josep guardiola titi camara gabriel batistuta and christophe dugarry. so he is full of admiration for two of his colleagues from the great milan side of the mid-90s who are likely to line up against manchester united on wednesday - paolo maldini and alessandro costacurta. i m happy that they have managed to play so long at a high level he said. i made a vow to costacurta that as long as he plays i will continue to play. and it s amazing that paolo has managed to play at such a high level for such a long time.

Sports

microsoft plans safer id system microsoft is planning to make windows and internet explorer more secure by including software to give people more control over personal information. info cards will help people manage personal details on their pcs to make online services safer said microsoft. microsoft s two previous programs passport and hailstorm aimed to protect users but were criticised. id fraud is one of the uk s fastest-growing crimes with criminals netting an estimated £1.3bn last year. a quarter of uk adults has either had their id stolen via hi-tech or other means or knows someone who has a recent report by which magazine found. microsoft is developing a new version of internet explorer browser and its operating system windows which has been code-named longhorn. michael stephenson director in microsoft s windows server division would not confirm however whether the new info cards id system will be built into the current windows xp version or longhorn. we re trying to make the end-user experience as simple as possible mr stephenson said. the system would differ from its previous attempts to make online transactions more secure said microsoft. while passport and hailstorm stored user information centrally on the net the latest system will store data on a user s pc. it s going to put control of digital ids into the hands of an end-user the end-user will be in full control said mr stephenson. hailstorm was criticised by privacy campaigners for putting too much sensitive information into the hands of a single company. passport provides a single log-in for more than one website and stores basic personal information. but its popularity suffered after security scares. up to 200 million passport accounts were left vulnerable to online theft and malicious hackers after a flaw in the system was exploited in 2003. online auction site ebay stopped supporting it in january 2005. although the flaw was fixed microsoft has come under regular criticism for the number of security loopholes in internet explorer. last year it released a major security update for windows service pack 2 to combat some of the security concerns. longhorn is due to be released commercially in late 2006 but an updated version of internet explorer is due for release later this year.

Science_and_Techology

india unveils anti-poverty budget india is to boost spending on primary schools and health in a budget flagged as a boost for the ordinary citizen. india s defence budget has also been raised 7.8% to 830bn rupees ($19bn). the priority for finance minister palaniappan chidambaram is to fight poverty and keep the government s communist allies onside. but his options are limited by a new law which makes him cut the budget deficit which he said would be 4.5% of gdp in the year to march 2005. the country s overall deficit is thought to be more than 10% if the spending of india s 35 states and territories is included. under the fiscal responsibility law mr chidambaram has to trim the deficit by 0.3 percentage points each year a target he says he has now met for the current year. but the heavy spending on poverty reduction means the 2005-6 target for the deficit will be 4.3% mr chidambaram said - falling short of the new law s requirement. i was left with no option but to press the pause button vis a vis the act he said. the following year though would have to be back on track he warned. i may add that we are perilously close to the limits of fiscal prudence and there is no more room for spending beyond our means he said. the coming year s reduction has meant bringing more of the businesses in india s burgeoning services sector into the tax system and restructuring the personal tax system although there are numerous corporate tax and duty reductions built into the budget. presenting his budget in the lower house of parliament mr chidambaram said the indian economy was performing strongly and that inflation has been reined in. he said india s economy grew 6.9% in 2004. in his budget mr chidambaram has: - increased spending on primary education to 71.56bn rupees ($1.6bn) - increased spending on health to 102.8bn rupees ($2.35bn) - announced that 80bn rupees ($1.8bn) will be spent on building rural infrastructure - pledged 102.16bn rupees ($2.3bn) for tsunami victims - increased flow of funds to agriculture by 30% - announced a package for the sugar industry in addition up to 100bn rupees ($2.3bn) to be spent on infrastructure will be sourced by borrowing against the country s foreign exchange reserves keeping budgeted spending under control. given the resilience of the indian economy... it is possible to launch a direct assault on poverty mr chidambaram said. the whole purpose of democratic government is to eliminate poverty. the new indian government led by the congress party was voted into power last may after it pledged to introduce economic reforms with a human face . the finance minister says he is committed to continue reforming india s tax system while expanding the tax base. as part of his reforms he has announced: - duty cuts on capital goods and raw materials - expanded service tax net - raised the income-tax threshold to 100 000 rupees ($2 300) - reduced income tax for those earning less than 250 000 rupees ($5 700) to 20% - reduced corporate tax rates to 30% an annual economic survey released on friday said india needed to ease limit restriction on foreign investment reform labour laws and cut duties apart from widening the tax base for long-term economic growth. but mr chidambaram is under pressure from the communist parties to focus on increasing social spending. the communists are also hostile to measures seeking to increase foreign investment and allow companies to hire and fire employees at will. in recent months they have expressed their displeasure at the government s economic reform plans including increasing foreign direct investment in telecommunication and aviation. in his last budget mr chidambaram had pledged billions of dollars for improving education and health services for the poor as well as special assistance for farmers.

Business

holmes is hit by hamstring injury kelly holmes has been forced out of this weekend s european indoor athletics championships after picking up a hamstring injury during training. the double olympic champion said: i am very disappointed that i have been forced to withdraw. i can hardly walk at the moment and i won t be able to do any running for two or three weeks although i ll be keeping fit as best i can. holmes will have now have intensive treatment in south africa. the 34-year-old made a cautious start to the season but looked back to her best when she stormed to the 1 000m title at the birmingham grand prix 10 days ago. after that race and more progress in training holmes revealed she had decided to compete at the european indoors before her plans were wrecked last weekend. on saturday night i pulled my hamstring running the last bend on my final 200m of the night said holmes. i was going really really well when i felt a massive spasm in my left leg and my hamstring blew. i saw the doctor here and he has said it is not serious but it s frustrating missing madrid when i knew i was in great shape. holmes has now been advised by her coach margot jennings not to rush back into training and it is unlikely she will compete again until the summer. helen clitheroe now goes to madrid as the only british competitor in the women s 1500m while there will be no representative in the 800m.

Sports

cabs collect mountain of mobiles gadgets are cheaper smaller and more common than ever. but that just means we are more likely to lose them. in london alone over the past six months more than 63 000 mobile phones have been left in the back of black cabs according to a survey. that works out at about three phones per cab. over the same period almost 5 000 laptops and 5 800 pdas such as palms and pocket pcs were left in licensed cabs. even the great and good are not immune to losing their beloved gadgets. jemima khan reportedly left her ipod phone and purse in a cab and asked for them to be returned to her friend who turned out to be hugh grant. as the popularity of portable gadgets has grown and we trust more of our lives to them we seem to be forgetting them in ever larger numbers. the numbers of lost laptops has leapt by 71% in the last three years. this has left londoners or those travelling by cab in the capital as the world s best at losing laptops according to the research by the licensed taxi drivers association and pointsec a mobile-data backup firm. more than twice as many laptops were left in the back of black cabs in london as in any of the nine other cities (helsinki oslo munich paris stockholm copenhagen chicago and sydney) where the research into lost and found gadgets was carried out. by contrast danes were most adept at losing mobile phones being seven times more likely to leave it behind in a cab than travellers in germans norwegians and swedes. top of the range phones can carry enormous amounts of data - enough to hold hundreds of pictures or thousands of contact details. given that few people back up the data on their pc it is a fair bet that even fewer do so with the phone they carry around. you could be losing a fair chunk of your life in the back of that cab not least because many people collect numbers on their phone that they do not have anywhere else. equally phones let you navigate through contacts by name so many people have completely forgotten their friends numbers and could not reconstruct them if they had to. this growing habit of losing gadgets explains the rise of firms such as retrofone which lets people buy a cheap old-fashioned phone to replace the tiny shiny expensive one they have just lost. briton s growing love of phones has also led to the creation of the mobile equipment national database that lets you register the unique id number of your phone so it can be returned to you in the event of it being lost or stolen. according to statistics 50% of all muggings and snatch theft offences involve mobiles. millions of gadgets are now logged in the database and organisations such as transport for london regularly consult it when trying to re-unite folk with their phones and other gadgets. for the drivers finding a mobile in the back of their cab is one of the more pleasant things many have found. the survey of what else has been left behind included a harp a dog a hamster and a baby.

Science_and_Techology

healey targets england comeback leicester wing austin healey hopes to use sunday s return heineken cup clash with wasps as a further springboard to an england recall for the six nations. healey who won 51 caps prior to the 2003 world cup has been in good form in the tigers resurgence this season. i definitely still have ambitions to play for england healey told the bbc. we will have to see what happens after the previous (autumn) tests but when i look at the current squad i definitely feel there is a place there for me. healey who has also played both half-back positions and full-back during his career has reverted to the wing where he won most of his england caps. after recovering from a trapped nerve in his back sustained at the end of september the 31-year-old is relishing his role in the tigers revival. i had six weeks out but fortunately i have resumed the sort of form i had before he said. i am basically playing where it best suits leicester. obviously i can play scrum-half fly-half or full-back at a moment s notice. but playing on the wing actually gives me a bigger free role to come in where i am not expected and influence things. that has been apparent in parts one and two of the wasps-leicester trilogy in recent weeks. first healey came off his flank with an angled run to score an injury-time try that earned the tigers a 17-17 draw in their premiership meeting on 21 november. then in the first of their heineken cup double header last sunday healey slotted in at stand-off and delivered a superb cross-kick for martin corry to score the tigers third try. i caught cozza s eye a couple of phases before that and was hoping to get it to him on the full but fortunately even with the bounce he managed to score healey recalled. healey twice a heineken cup winner believes last sunday s match was up there with some of the biggest club contests he has played in. it was a very intense occasion and a very destructive game he recalled. there was not a huge amount of rugby played but it was a great game to be involved in. after about 15 minutes i thought we might stride away with it but wasps really came back into it and in the last couple of minutes it could have gone either way. the same outcome this sunday would put leicester in pole position to top their heineken pool with a home game against biarritz and away trip to calvisano to come. but healey insists the tigers must summon the same desire if they are to deliver the knockout blow in what has been dubbed rugby s version of rocky ii . there was a lot of satisfaction in the dressing room aftewards but it is really only a case of a job half done he added. it was the first of a two-leg trip and if we lose at welford road it will negate all the positives we can take from result. i think it came down to who wanted it more and in the end i think we did. we have got to show the same desire again this week.

Sports

europe asks asia for euro help european leaders say asian states must let their currencies rise against the us dollar to ease pressure on the euro. the european single currency has shot up to successive all-time highs against the dollar over the past few months. tacit approval from the white house for the weaker greenback which could help counteract huge deficits has helped trigger the move. but now europe says the euro has had enough and asia must now share some of the burden. china is seen as the main culprit with exports soaring up 35% in 2004 partly on the back of a currency pegged to the dollar. asia should engage in greater currency flexibility said french finance minister herve gaymard after a meeting with his german counterpart hans eichel. markets responded by pushing the euro lower in the expectation that the rhetoric - and the pressure - is unlikely to ease ahead of a meeting of the g7 industrialised countries next week. early on tuesday morning the dollar had edged higher to 1.3040 euros. the yen meanwhile had strengthened to 102.975 against the dollar by 0730 gmt.

Business

nigeria to boost cocoa production the government of nigeria is hoping to triple cocoa production over the next three years with the launch of an ambitious development programme. agriculture minister adamu bello said the scheme aimed to boost production from an expected 180 000 tonnes this year to 600 000 tonnes by 2008. the government will pump 154m naira ($1.1m; £591 000) into subsidies for farming chemicals and seedlings. nigeria is currently the world s fourth-largest cocoa producer. cocoa was the main export product in nigeria during the 1960s. but with the coming of oil the government began to pay less attention to the cocoa sector and production began to fall from a peak of about 400 000 tonnes a year in 1970. at the launch of the programme in the south-western city of ibadan mr bello explained that an additional aim of the project is to encourage the processing of cocoa in the country and lift local consumption. he also announced that 91m naira of the funding available had been earmarked for establishing cocoa plant nurseries. the country could be looking to emulate rival ghana which produced a bumper crop last year. however some farmers are sceptical about the proposals. people who are not farming will hijack the subsidy said joshua osagie a cocoa farmer from edo state told reuters. the farmers in the village never see any assistance he added. at the same time as nigeria announced its new initiative ghana - the world s second largest cocoa exporter - announced revenues from the industry had broken new records. the country saw more than $1.2bn-worth of the beans exported during 2003-04. analysts said high tech-production techniques and crop spraying introduced by the government led to the huge crop pushing production closer to levels seen in the 1960s when the country was the world s leading cocoa grower.

Business

microsoft launches its own search microsoft has unveiled the finished version of its home-grown search engine. the now formally launched msn search site takes the training wheels off the test version unveiled in november 2003. the revamped engine indexes more pages than before can give direct answers to factual questions and features tools to help people create detailed queries. microsoft faces challenges establishing itself as a serious search site because of the intense competition for queries. google still reigns supreme as the site people turn to most often when they go online to answer a query keep up with news or search for images. but in the last year google has faced greater competition than ever for users as old rivals such as yahoo and microsoft and new entrants such as amazon and blinkx try to grab some of the searching audience for themselves. this renewed interest has come about because of the realisation that many of the things people do online begin with a search for information - be it for a particular web page recipe book gadget news story image or anything else. microsoft is keen to make its home-grown search engine a significant rival to google. to generate its corpus of data microsoft has indexed 5 billion webpages and claims to update its document index every two days - more often than rivals. the microsoft search engine can also answer specific queries directly rather than send people to a page that might contain the answer. for its direct answer feature microsoft is calling on its encarta encyclopaedia to provide answers to questions about definitions facts calculations conversions and solutions to equations. tony macklin director of product at ask jeeves pointed out that its search engine has been answering specific queries this way since april 2003. the major search providers have moved beyond delivering only algorithmic search so in many ways microsoft is following the market he said. tools sitting alongside the msn search engine allow users to refine results to specific websites countries regions or languages. microsoft is also using so-called graphic equalisers that let people adjust the relevance of terms to get results that are more up-to-date or more popular. the company said that user feedback from earlier test versions had been used to refine the workings of the finished system. the test or beta version of the msn search engine unveiled in november had a few teething troubles. on its first day many new users keen to try it were greeted with a page that said the site had been overwhelmed.

Science_and_Techology

real will finish abandoned match real madrid and real socieded will play the final six minutes of their match which was abandoned on sunday because of a bomb scare. the bernabeu was evacuated with the score at 1-1 and two minutes of normal time remaining in the game. the teams will now play the final two minutes plus four minutes of injury time on 5 january. brazilian ronaldo and england captain david beckham had to wait in the street in their kit after the abandonment. real sociedad president jose luis astiazaran said: we thought the best thing was to play the time remaining. hundreds of fans streamed across the pitch on their way to the exits after the game was called off. tourists and fans took advantage of the opportunity for a photograph between the famous stadium s goalposts. the two clubs met the spanish fa on monday and astiazaran added: we thought about giving the game as concluded but after talking with the fa we decided there was no precedent for that and the best thing was to play the time that was remaining. real madrid director of sport emilio butragueno praised the spectators inside the ground for their conduct. i d like to highlight the behaviour of the fans who showed great maturity and it was an example of good citizenship he said. butragueno confirned before confirming that tuesday s charity match - which has been billed as ronaldo s friends against zidane s friends - will go ahead as planned. i d also like to take the chance to say that tomorrow s game will take place butragueno declared of the partido contra la pobreza (game against poverty). he added: football is important for society and we want to show that. we also think that football should be a fiesta we had programmed and people deserve to enjoy the game.

Sports

uk net users leading tv downloads british tv viewers lead the trend of illegally downloading us shows from the net according to research. new episodes of 24 desperate housewives and six feet under appear on the web hours after they are shown in the us said a report. web tracking company envisional said 18% of downloaders were from within the uk and that downloads of tv programmes had increased by 150% in the last year. about 70% were using file-sharing program bittorrent the firm said. it s now as easy to download a pirate tv show as it is to programme a vcr said ben coppin from envisional. a typical episode of 24 was downloaded by about 100 000 people globally said the report and an estimated 20 000 of those were from within the uk. fans of many popular us tv programmes like 24 usually have to wait weeks or months until the latest series is shown in the uk. but in some cases said the report people were able to watch the new episodes in britain before us audiences on the west coast of the country. missing a television show presents little problem to anyone with a basic knowledge of the internet explained mr coppin. two clicks and your favourite programme is downloading. in effect the internet is now a global video recorder. exact figures are difficult to pin down but it is thought that about 80 000 to 100 000 people in the uk download tv programmes. some may just want the odd episode others are downloading regularly. many broadcast analysts agree that the net is radically altering the way people get content like tv programmes. this presents a challenge to broadcasters who are concerned that channel schedules may become less important to people. it is also of concern to them because advertisements are usually cut out of the downloaded programmes. the industry has coined the term time-shifting to describe this trend of being able to watch what you want when you want. the increased popularity of personal digital video recorders tivo-type boxes which automatically record programmes like sky+ have also contributed to the trend. there are also numerous programs available on the net which automatically search and store tv programmes for viewers effectively creating a personal video recorder on a computer. within half an hour recorded episodes can be uploaded - or posted - onto file-sharing networks or other download sites. because they tend to be shorter then full-length films they can be processed - digitised - quickly. more people with high-speed broadband connections in the uk also means that episodes can be downloaded quickly. according to jupiter research 40% of homes with broadband say it helps them pick and choose the programmes they want to see or that friends have recommended. the envisional reports said that the tv industry should consider offering a legal way to download shows. the bbc ran a trial of what it calls the interactive media player (imp) last year which was based on a peer-to-peer distribution model. it let people download programmes it held the rights to up to eight days after they had already aired. it is looking to do a more expansive trial later this year. the bbc already allows radio fans to hear programmes they missed online up to a week after broadcast. about six million people in the uk now have a fast always-on net connection via cable or phone lines.

Science_and_Techology

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

Science_and_Techology

india s deccan seals $1.8bn deal air deccan has ordered 30 airbus a320 planes in a $1.8bn (£931m) deal as india s first low-cost airline expands in the fast-growing domestic market. air deccan was set up last year and wants to lure travellers away from the railway network and pricier rivals. the potential of the indian market has attracted attention at home and abroad. beer magnate vijay mallya recently set up kingfisher airlines while uk entrepreneur richard branson has said he is keen to start a local operation. the country has a population of more than a billion people and many observers feel that it is underserved by airlines. recently however the booming economy has boosted personal spending power and helped swell the middle classes and the corporate sector. india s government has given its backing to cheaper and more accessible air travel. the days of flying being a symbol of only maharajas or the rich are over the minister for civil aviation praful patel said earlier. infrastructure is being built to handle the expected increase in demand and on tuesday agence france presse reported that a group led by germany s siemens won the contract to build a private airport near bangalore. india s airports authority and the state government will own 13% each of the finished transport hub. for its part air deccan set up by army officer and silk farmer gorur gopinath plans to increase its fleet to 60 aircraft within five years. to help finance the expansion the company may sell a 25% stake to an investor for about $50m. when it was set up the firm offered tickets that were 50% cheaper than other indian airlines. it said it was basing its business model on european firms such as ireland s ryanair.

Business

souped-up wi-fi is on the horizon super high-speed wireless data networks could soon be in use in the uk. the government s wireless watchdog is seeking help on the best way to regulate the technology behind such networks called ultra wideband (uwb). ofcom wants to ensure that the arrival of uwb-using devices does not cause problems for those that already use the same part of the radio spectrum. uwb makes it possible to stream huge amounts of data through the air over short distances. one of the more likely uses of uwb is to make it possible to send dvd quality video images wirelessly to tv screens or to let people beam music to media players around their home. the technology has the potential to transmit hundreds of megabits of data per second. uwb could also be used to create so-called personal area networks that let a person s gadgets quickly and easily swap data amongst themselves. the technology works over a range up to 10 metres and uses billions of short radio pulses every second to carry data. at the recent consumer electronics show in las vegas products with uwb chips built-in got their first public airing. currently use of uwb is only allowed in the uk under a strict licencing scheme. we re seeking opinion from industry to find out whether or not we should allow uwb on a licence-exempt basis said a spokesman for ofcom. companies have until 24 march to respond. in april the ec is due to start its own consultation on europe-wide adoption of uwb. the cross-europe body for radio regulators known as the european conference of postal and telecommunications administrations (cept) is carrying out research for this harmonisation programme. early sight of the cept work has caused controversy as some think it over-emphasises uwb s potential to interfere with existing users. by contrast a preliminary ofcom report found that it would be quite straight-forward to deploy uwb without causing problems for those that already use it. the ofcom spokesman said it was considering imposing a mask or set of technical restrictions on uwb-using devices. we would want these devices to have very strict controls on power levels so they can not transmit a long way or over a wide area he said. despite the current restrictions the technology is already being used. cambridge-based ubisense has about 40 customers around the world using the short-range radio technology said david theriault standards and regulatory liaison for ubisense. he said that uwb was driving novel ways to interact with computers. it s like having a 3d mouse all the time he said. he said that european decisions on what to do with uwb allied with ieee decisions on the exact specifications for it would help drive adoption. prior to its adoption as a way for gadgets and computers to communicate uwb was used as a sensing technology. it is used to spot such things as cracks under the surface of runways or to help firemen detect people through walls.

Science_and_Techology

injury doubts beset wales squad wales have a clutch of injury worries before wednesday s international friendly against hungary in cardiff. west ham s gavin williams (ankle) looks certain to be out so uncapped wrexham defender stephen roberts is drafted in. defenders danny gabbidon and gareth roberts plus ryan giggs have hamstring concerns while there are also doubts over robbie savage (groin). however manchester united winger giggs is expected to recover in time to earn his 50th cap at the millennium stadium. there were also doubts over gabbidon s fellow cardiff defender rhys weston but the full-back appears to have shrugged off the knock he picked up in the bluebirds 1-0 loss to west ham on sunday. the news leaves wales boss john toshack short in defence for his first game in charge with aston villa s mark delaney injured and james collins with the under-21s. that could clear the way for new faces danny collins and dave partridge to make their wales debuts. coyne (burnley) jones (wolves) roberts (wrexham) collins (sunderland) edwards (wolves) gabbidon (cardiff) page (cardiff) partridge (motherwell) ricketts (swansea) roberts (tranmere) weston (cardiff) davies (tottenham) fletcher (west ham) giggs (man utd) koumas (west brom) robinson (sunderland) savage (blackburn) williams (west ham) bellamy (newcastle) earnshaw (west brom) hartson (celtic).

Sports

world tour for top video gamers two uk gamers are about to embark on a world tour as part of the most lucrative-ever global games tournament. aaron foster and david treacy have won the right to take part in a tournament offering $1m in total prize money. the cash will be handed out over 10 separate competitions in a continent-hopping contest organised by the cyberathlete professional league. as part of their prize the pair will have their travel costs paid to ensure they can get to the different bouts. the cpl world tour kicks off in mid-february and the first leg will be in istanbul. all ten bouts of the tournament will be played throughout 2005 each one in a different country. at each stop $50 000 in prize money will be up for grabs. the tournament champion for each leg of the cpl world tour will walk away with a $15 000 prize. the winner of the grand final will get a prize purse of $150 000 from a total pot of $500 000. winners of each stage of the tour automatically get a place at the next stop. the world tour stops are open to any keen gamer that registers. online registration for the first stop opens this weekend. some pro-players are winning a spot at the tour destinations through qualifying events organised by cpl partners. winners at these qualifiers get seeded higher in the elimination parts of each tournament. mr foster and mr treacy get the chance to attend the world tour as members of the uk s four-kings gaming clan. towards the end of 2004 four-kings staged a series of online painkiller competitions to reveal the uk s top players of the pc game. the best eight players met face-to-face in a special elimination event in late december where mr foster and mr tracey proved their prowess at painkiller. as part of their prize the pair also get a contract with four-kings intel which is one of the uk s few pro-gaming teams. there are a lot of people who take gaming very seriously and support their local or national team with the same passion as any other sport said simon bysshe who filmed the event for four-kings and intel. more than 80 000 people have downloaded the movie of the tournament highlights. professional gaming is here to stay and will only grow in popularity he said.

Science_and_Techology

go-ahead for balkan oil pipeline albania bulgaria and macedonia has given the go ahead for the construction of a $1.2bn oil pipeline that will pass through the balkan peninsula. the project aims to allow alternative ports for the shipping of russian and caspian oil that normally goes through turkish ports. it aims to transport 750 000 daily barrels of oil. the pipeline will be built by the us-registered albanian macedonian bulgarian oil corporation (ambo). the 912km pipeline will run from the bulgarian port of burgas over the black sea to the albanian city of vlore on the adriatic coast crossing macedonia. the project was conceived in 1994 but it was delayed because of the lack of political support. by signing the agreement on tuesday the prime ministers of bulgaria albania and macedonia have overcome the problem. this is one of the most important infrastructure projects for regional eu and euro-atlantic integration for the western balkans said albanian prime minister fatos nano. according to pat ferguson president of ambo work on the pipeline will begin in 2005 and it is expected to be ready in three or four years. he added that the company had already raised about $900m from the overseas private investment corporation (opic) - a us development agency - the eximbank and credit suisse first boston among others. the project has also the support of the european union. analysts have said that oil companies like chevrontexaco exxon mobil and british petroleum would be happy to find alternative routes to the bosphorus and dardanelles straits.

Business

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

Sports

when invention turns to innovation it is unlikely that future technological inventions are going to have the same kind of transformative impact that they did in the past. when history takes a look back at great inventions like the car and transistor they were defining technologies which ultimately changed people s lives substantially. but says nick donofrio senior vice-president of technology and manufacturing at ibm it was not the thing itself that actually improved people s lives. it was all the social and cultural changes that the discovery or invention brought with it. the car brought about a crucial change to how people lived in cities giving them the ability to move out into the suburbs whilst having mobility and access. when we talk about innovation and creating real value in the 21st century we have to think more like this but faster mr donofrio told the bbc news website after giving the royal academy of engineering 2004 hinton lecture. the invention discovery is likely not to have the same value as the transistor had or the automobile had. the equivalent of those things will be invented or discovered but by themselves they are just not going to able to generate real business value or wealth as these things did. these are not altogether new ideas and academics have been exploring how technologies impact wider society for years. but what it means for technology companies is that a new idea method or device will have to have a different kind thinking behind it so that people see the value that innovative technology has for them. we are in a different phase now when it comes to technology argues mr donofrio industry week s 2003 technology leader of the year. the hype and over-promise is over and now technology leaders have to demonstrate that things work make sense make a difference and life gets better as a result. in the dotcom era there was something that was jumping up in your face every five minutes. somebody had a new thing that would awe you. you weren t quite sure that it did anything you weren t quite sure if you needed it you weren t quite sure if it had value for it but it was cool. but change and innovation in technology that people will see affecting their daily lives he says will come about slowly subtlety and in ways that will no longer be in your face . it will creep in pervasively. nanotechnologies will play a key part in this kind of pervasive environment in all sorts of ways through new superconducting materials to coatings power and memory storage. i am a very big believer in the evolution of this industry into a pervasive environment in an incredible network infrastructure says mr donofrio. pervasive computing is where wireless computing rules and where jewellery clothes and everyday objects become the interfaces instead of bulky wires screens and keyboards. the net becomes a true network that is taken for granted and just there like air. people will not have to do anything to stay connected. people will know their lives are just better says mr donofrio. trillions of devices will be connected to the net in ways people will not know. natural interfaces will develop devices will shape your persona and our technologically underused voices could be telling our jewellery to sort out the finances. ultimately there will be says mr donofrio no value in being computer illiterate . to some it sounds like a technological world gone mad. to mr donofrio it is a vision innovation that will happen. behind this vision should be a rich robust network capability and deep computing says mr donofrio. deep computing is the ability to perform lots of complex calculations on massive amounts of data and integral to this concept is supercomputing. it has value according to ibm because it helps humans work out extremely complex problems to come up with valuable solutions like how to refine millions of net search results finding cures for diseases or understanding of exactly how a gene or protein operates. but pervasive computing presumably means having technologies that are aware of diversity of contexts commands and requirements of a diverse world. as computing and technologies become part of the environment part of furniture walls and clothing physical space becomes a more important consideration. this is going to need a much broader range of skills and experience. i am confident that the set [science engineering and technology] industry is going to be short on skills he says. if i am right about what innovation is you need to be multidisciplinary and collaborative. women tend to have those traits a lot better than men. eventually women could win out in both life and physical sciences he says. in the uk a dti-funded resource centre for women has set a target to have 40% representation on set industry boards. ibm according to mr donofrio has 30%. our goal is for our research team to become the preferred organisation for women in science and technology to begin their career. the whole issue of global diversity is as much a business matter as it is a moral and social concern to mr donofrio. we believe in the whole issue of global diversity he says. our customers are diverse our clients are diverse. they expect us to look like them. as more and more women or underrepresented minorities succeed into leadership positions it becomes and imperative for us to constantly look like them.

Science_and_Techology