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us trade deficit widens sharply the gap between us exports and imports has widened to more than $60bn (£31.7bn) an all-time record. figures from the commerce department for november showed exports down 2.3% to $95.6bn while imports grew 1.3% to $155.8bn on rising consumer demand. part of the expanding deficit came from high prices for oil imports. but the numbers suggested the sliding dollar - which makes exports less expensive - has had little impact and could indicate slowing economic growth. the trade deficit - far bigger than the $54bn widely expected on wall street - prompted a rapid response from the currency markets. by 1650 gmt the dollar was trading against the euro at $1.3280 almost a cent and a half weaker than before the announcement. against the pound the dollar was down about 0.7% at $1 8923. the dollar s fall has been sudden violent and appropriate given this number said brian taylor of wells fargo in minneapolis. recent exchange rate movements certainly haven t had any impact yet. treasury secretary john snow put a brave face on the news saying it was a sign of strong economic expansion. the economy is growing at such a fast rate that it is generating lots of disposable income... some of which is used to buy goods from our trading partners. although the white house officially still backs the us s traditional strong dollar policy it has tacitly indicated that it would be happy if the slide continued. the dollar has fallen by 50% against the euro - as well as by 30% against the yen - in the past three years. the main catalyst most economists accept is the large budget deficit on the one hand and the current account deficit - the difference between the flow of money in and out of the us - on the other. the trade deficit is a large part of the latter. in november the fall in exports was largely due to a decline in sales of industrial supplies and materials such as chemicals as well as of cars consumer goods and food. one small bright spot for us policy-makers was a slight decline in the deficit with china often blamed for job losses and other economic woes. although china s overall trade surplus is expanding according to chinese government figures the commerce department revealed the us s deficit with china was $19.6bn in november down from $19.7bn the month before. but the deficit with japan was at its worst in more than four years.

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us top of supercomputing charts the us has pushed japan off the top of the supercomputing chart with ibm s prototype blue gene/l machine. it is being assembled for the lawrence livermore national laboratory under the us department of energy. ibm test results show that blue gene/l has managed speeds of 70.72 teraflops. the previous top machine japan s nec earth simulator clocked up 35.86. the top 500 list was announced on monday and officially charts the fastest computers in the world. it is announced every six months and is worked out using an officially recognised mathematical speed test called linpack which measures calculations per second. once completed in 2005 blue gene/l will be more powerful than its current prototype. next year with the final blue gene four times what it is this year it is going to be a real step up and will be hard to beat said erich strohmaier one of the co-founders of the top500 list. it will help scientists work out the safety security and reliability requirements for the us s nuclear weapons stockpile without the need for underground nuclear testing. it will also cut down on the amount of heat generated by the massive power a big problem for supercomputers. in second place was silicon graphics columbia supercomputer based at the us space agency s (nasa) ames research center in california. the linux-based machine was reported to have reached a top speed of 42.7 trillion calculations per second (teraflops) in october. it will be used to model flight missions climate research and aerospace engineering. the defeated japanese contender the earth simulator which was listed in third place losing the top spot it had held since june 2002. it is dedicated to climate modelling and simulating seismic activity. since the first supercomputer the cray-1 was installed at los alamos national laboratory us in 1976 computational speed has leaped 500 000 times. the cray-1 was capable of 80 megaflops (80 million operations a second). the blue gene/l machine that will be completed next year will be five million times faster. started in 1993 the top 500 list is decided by a group of computer science academics from around the world. it is presented at the international supercomputer conference in pittsburgh.

Science_and_Techology

mac mini heralds mini revolution the mac mini was launched amid much fanfare by apple and great excitement by apple watchers last month. but does the latest macintosh justify the hype let us get a few things dealt with at the outset - yes the mac mini is really really small and yes it is another piece of inspired apple design. there is more to be said on the computer s size and design but it is worth highlighting that the mac mini is a just a computer. inside that small box there is a g4 processor a cd/dvd player a hard drive some other technical bits and bobs and an operating system. a dvd burner wireless and bluetooth technologies can be bought at extra cost. and if you do not have a monitor keyboard or mouse then you will need to purchase those also. it is not the fastest computer for the money but for under £400 you are getting something more interesting than mere technical specifications - apple software. the mac mini comes bundled with mac os x the operating system as well as ilife 05 a suite of software which includes itunes web browser safari iphoto garage band and idvd. i doubt many pc lovers would seriously argue that windows xp comes with a better suite of programs than mac os x. of course users of open source operating system linux draw up their own menu of programs. for people who want to do interesting things with their music photos and home movies then a mac mini is an ideal first computer or companion to a main computer. it s a good little machine with a reasonable amount of power and just perfect for the average computer user who wants to leave the tyranny of window and viruses said mark sparrow technical and reviews editor at mac format magazine. he added: in essence it s a laptop in a biscuit tin minus the screen and the keyboard. the software bundle that comes with the mini makes your average budget pc look a bit sick. the relatively low price of the machine has also encouraged the more technically-savvy to experiment with their macs. one user has already created a dock to enable him to plug in and out his mac mini in his car. the small size of the machine makes it a practical solution for in-car entertainment - playing movies and music - as well as navigation. another user has mounted his mac mini to the back of his large plasma screen and then controls the computer via a wireless keyboard and mouse. when it was first announced some pundits thought the mini was designed as a sort of stealth media centre - ie the machine would be used to serve tv programmes music films and photos - partly due to its small living room friendly design. but there are obvious reasons why this is not the case - at least not in the here and now the hard drive - at 80gb for the larger model - is too small to be realistically used as media centre. while commercial personal video recorders are on the market with smaller than 80gb hard drives it is worth remembering that they only store tv content. a media centre computer has to store music files and photos and as such 80gb just seems too small. most pcs running windows media center have at least 120gb hard disks. coupled with the lack of a tv tuner card a digital audio out and any kind of media centre software bundled with the machine then the mac mini should be judged on what it is not what it is not. but that has not stopped more enterprising users from adapting the mac mini to media centre uses. so - is the mac mini just another computer or a revolution in computing graham barlow editor of mac format understandably has a rather partisan viewpoint. it s just a mac but we should be very excited - it s revolutionary in its size (smaller than pcs) looks (looks better than pcs) and the fact that it s the first mac designed to really go for the low-cost pc market. the design of the mac mini is further evidence of a future when pcs are more than just bland bulky boxes. there are a number of companies who already produce miniature pcs based on mini-itx motherboards. but at the moment these pcs tend to be either for the home-build enthusiast or expensive pre-built options based around microsoft s media center software. but for the value the mac mini offers bringing some of the best software packages within reach of more consumers than ever before apple is to be congratulated. let us say then that if the mac mini is not a fully fledged revolution - it is a mini revolution.

Science_and_Techology

holmes starts 2005 with gb events kelly holmes will start 2005 with a series of races in britain. holmes will make her first track appearance on home soil since winning double olympic gold in january s norwich union international in glasgow. she will also run in the grand prix in birmingham in february and may defend her indoor aaa 800m title in sheffield earlier that month. i am still competitive and still want to win she said. i m an athlete and i can t wait to get back on the track. she added: these events are also a great opportunity to thank the british public for the enormous levels of support they have given me from the moment i stepped off that plane from greece. the glasgow meeting will see holmes compete over 1500m in a five-way match against sweden france russia and italy.

Sports

wood - ireland can win grand slam former captain keith wood believes ireland can win only their second grand slam - and first since 1948 - in this year s rbs six nations championship. after claiming their first triple crown for 19 years last season wood tips his former team-mates to go one better. things have been building up over the past few years and i think this is the year for ireland he told bbc sport. there is a great chance to win a grand slam. a lot of things are in our favour with england and france at home. ireland have finished runners-up three times including last year since the old five nations became six in 2000 and not finished outside the top three in the past five years. despite being without flanker keith gleeson coach eddie o sullivan has not had to contend with the sort of casualty lists that have hit england and scotland in particular prior to the tournament. for ireland to win it we need to stay relatively injury free and fortunately we are one of the few teams that have done that so far wood added. it is going to be tough and we need to take all the luck and opportunities that come our way. ireland s last game of the tournament is against wales in cardiff - a fixture they have not lost since 1983. but despite their traditional hospitality when the irish are visiting wood believes wales might end their four-match losing run against england in cardiff. so many of the major england players have either retired in the last year or are injured that i think it will be very hard for them down in cardiff wood added. wales have had four brilliant games in the last year or so and lost all four so the time is right for them now to beat one of the major teams.

Sports

novartis hits acquisition trail swiss drugmaker novartis has announced 5.65bn euros ($7.4bn; £3.9bn) of purchases to make its sandoz unit the world s biggest generic drug producer. novartis which last month forecast record sales for 2005 said it had bought all of germany s hexal. it also acquired 67.7% of hexal s us affiliate eon labs and offered to buy the remaining shares for $31 each. novartis said that it would be able to make cost savings of about $200m a year following the acquisitions. novartis shares rose 1% to 57.85 swiss francs in early trading. the deal will see novartis sandoz business overtake israel s teva pharmaceuticals as the world s biggest maker of generics. based on 2004 figures the newly merged producer would have sales of more than $5bn the company estimated. novartis said that it would merge a number of departments adding that there may be job cuts. the strong growth outlook for sandoz which will create jobs is expected to partially compensate for necessary reductions in the work force the firm said in a statement. generic drugs are chemically identical to their more expensive branded rivals. producers such as sandoz can copy the branded products usually after their patent protection expires and can sell them more cheaply as they do not have to pay research and development cost. there are more than 150 generic drugmakers worldwide and analysts have predicted consolidation in a market that they call fragmented. however not all analysts were initially convinced about the deal. this is a very expensive acquisition birgit kuhlhoff from sal oppenheim investment bank told reuters. i find it strange that they are making acquisitions in exactly those markets where they suffered price pressure.

Business

bristol city 2-1 milton keynes leroy lita took his goal tally to 13 for the season as his double earned city an ldv vans trophy win. the striker finished off scott murray cross from close range just seconds before half-time. lita then made it 2-0 on 52 minutes but dons substitute serge makofo then netted a great volley to make it 2-1. the visitors almost took the tie to extra time with a late 30-yard bullet from richard johnson which was well held by steve phillips. phillips amankwaah coles hill fortune murray (anyinsah 59) doherty (harley 45) dinning bell lita (cotterill 72) gillespie. subs not used: orr brown. hill. lita 45 52. bevan oyedele ntimban-zeh crooks puncheon kamara (makofo 64) chorley herve (mckoy 45) tapp (johnson 45) mackie pacquette. subs not used: martin palmer. pacquette chorley johnson mckoy. makofo 66. 3 367 j ross (essex).

Sports

what now for british tennis tim henman s decision to quit davis cup tennis has left the british team with a gargantuan void to fill. the world number seven is tied for fourth among his countrymen for wins in the history of the tournament (he has 36 from his 50 rubbers). and great britain s last davis cup win without henman came against slovenia as far back as 1996. worse could follow according to former british team member chris bailey. bailey told bbc sport: after tim s announcement i doubt greg rusedski will be that far behind him. but without their top two where does that leave british ambitions in the sport s premier team event captain jeremy bates has singled out alex bogdanovic and andrew murray as potential replacements. the yugoslavian-born bogdanovic though is 184 places below henman in the world rankings and has played just two cup ties - winning one and losing the other. murray on the other hand is 407th in the current atp entry list and yet to make his cup debut. but bailey does see some hope for the future. he said: now we ve dropped down to the euro-africa zone the time was right for him to step down and let the young guys come to the fore. britain s next opponents israel are hardly likely to be quaking in their boots ahead of the 4-6 march match against a likely trio of bogdanovic murray and the 187th-ranked arvind parmar. bailey said: it will be tough for gb to move up but there comes a time when our young players have to step up. this was always going to be inevitable with tim and greg s growing years. i m confident about the future. i wouldn t lay money on us getting back into the world group next year but i d imagine in five years time we ll be competing for the major honours. of those lining up to replace henman the 17-year-old murray with four futures titles under his belt last year looks the best long-term bet. murray is the one that looks likeliest to take over tim s mantle said bailey. he has an enormous amount of self-confidence judging by what he s said in the past. bogdanovic three years murray s senior has had a more troubled time under britain s davis cup umbrella. while murray has been marked out as britain s golden boy bogdanovic was warned by the lawn tennis association for a lack of drive at the end of 2003. and bailey said: despite that alex is clearly talented as well while arvind is another contender. they re among the guys who have experienced the intensity of davis cup tennis - whether as players or on the sidelines. the lta has always done an exceptional job of ensuring that. now they ll finally get to play regularly in the cauldron of the cup. and i m confident that will springboard team gb to greater success.

Sports

souness delight at euro progress boss graeme souness felt newcastle were never really in danger of going out of the uefa cup against heerenveen. an early own goal followed by an alan shearer strike earned them a 2-1 win and a place in the uefa cup last 16. obviously with winning in the first leg it gave us a great advantage he said after the 4-2 aggregate victory. we got our goals early and in the minds of some players the job was done but then they got a goal and perhaps made us a bit nervous. shearer s goal moved him within 12 of jackie milburn s club scoring record of 200 for the magpies. but souness said he did not think beating the record would have any bearing on his decision to retire at the end of the season. i think if he got it this year he would want to stay next year anyway he added. he struck the ball very well - he always has done - and i think it was the power and pace that beat the goalkeeper. souness also paid tribute to laurent robert who was at the heart of much of united s attacking play. in the first half he did really well and did everything you want from a wide player. more of the same in future please he said.

Sports

uk pioneers digital film network the world s first digital cinema network will be established in the uk over the next 18 months. the uk film council has awarded a contract worth £11.5m to arts alliance digital cinema (aadc) who will set up the network of up to 250 screens. aadc will oversee the selection of cinemas across the uk which will use the digital equipment. high definition projectors and computer servers will be installed to show mainly british and specialist films. most cinemas currently have mechanical projectors but the new network will see up to 250 screens in up to 150 cinemas fitted with digital projectors capable of displaying high definition images. the new network will double the world s total of digital screens. cinemas will be given the film on a portable hard drive and they will then copy the content to a computer server. each film is about 100 gigabytes and has been compressed from an original one terabyte-size file. fiona deans associate director of aadc said the compression was visually lossless so no picture degradation will occur. the film will all be encrypted to prevent piracy and each cinema will have an individual key which will unlock the movie. people will see the picture quality is a bit clearer with no scratches. the picture will look exactly the same as when the print was first made - there is no degradation in quality over time. the key benefit of the digital network will be an increase in the distribution and screening of british films documentaries and foreign language films. access to specialised film is currently restricted across the uk said pete buckingham head of distribution and exhibition at the uk film council. although a genuine variety of films is available in central london and a few other metropolitan areas the choice for many outside these areas remains limited and the digital screen network will improve access for audiences across the uk digital prints costs less than a traditional 35mm print - giving distributors more flexibility in how they screen films said ms deans. it can cost up to £1 500 to make a copy of a print for specialist films. in the digital world you can make prints for considerably less than that. distributors can then send out prints to more cinemas and prints can stay in cinemas for much longer. the uk digital network will be the first to employ 2k projectors - which are capable of showing films at resolutions of 2048 * 1080 pixels. a separate competitive process to determine which cinemas will receive the digital screening technology will conclude in may. the sheer cost of traditional prints means that some cinemas need to show them twice a day in order to recoup costs. some films need word of mouth and time to build momentum - they don t need to be shown twice a day explained ms deans. a cinema will often book a 35mm print in for two weeks - even if the film is a roaring success they cannot hold on to the print because it will have to go to another cinema. with digital prints every cinema will have its own copy.

Science_and_Techology

chinese wine tempts italy s illva italy s illva saronno has agreed to buy 33% of changyu the largest wine maker in china. changyu said in a statement to the shenzhen stock exchange that illva will pay 481.42m yuan ($58.16m; £30.7m) once the government approves the deal. the italian liqueur maker will acquire the shares from the yantai state asset management bureau. chinese wine sales are growing the us agriculture department said with wine sales in 2003 up 25% at 61.1bn yuan. china is encouraging state-owned companies to sell shares to foreign investors. anheuser-busch heineken and scottish & newcastle have all invested in the chinese beer industry in the last two years and now illva saronno is betting on the chinese wine market. yantai state asset management bureau - a government agency in the north-eastern city of yantai - owns 55% of changyu. the state agency will also sell 10% of its stake in changyu to another overseas company although it didn t say who. the remaining 12% will be retained by the yantai city government. the consumption of wine in china is still low at just 0.22 litres per capita said the us agriculture department. this compares with 59 litres in france 12 litres in the us and three litres in japan.

Business

edgy agassi struggles past dent andre agassi put in an erratic display before edging into the fourth round of the australian open with victory over taylor dent. the 34-year-old american seeded eighth made a poor start dropping serve early on and later needing two chances to serve out the set. having secured the lead agassi still failed to take control as both players forced a succession of breaks. but agassi won the tie-break before wrapping up a 7-5 7-6 (7-3) 6-1 win. fourth seed survived an injury scare as he battled past mario ancic 6-4 3-6 6-3 6-4. the russian turned his right ankle in the third game of the fourth set and called for treatment immediately. but he showed no sign of the problem when he returned to the court to wrap up victory in two hours 45 minutes. ancic wimbledon semi-finalist in 2004 looked set to push safin all the way when he took the second set but safin raised his game to sink the croatian. safin said he was trying to keep his temper under control at this year s tournament. the russian hit himself on the head repeatedly in one second-set outburst but was otherwise largely calm in his victory. i try to stay calm because if you go crazy against players like ancic you might never come back because he s a tough opponent he said. i m a little bit calmer than i was before because i d had enough. the russian added that he was not worried by his ankle injury. i have had a lot of problems with that ankle before - it will be ok he said. s route to the fourth round was made easy when opponent jarkko nieminen was forced to retire from their match. the top seed and defending champion was leading 6-3 5-2 when nieminen pulled out with an abdominal injury. federer had been in patchy form until then - mixing 19 unforced errors with 19 winners. the world number one will play cypriot next after the former world junior champion beat tommy robredo 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 6-1. federer admitted he was under extra pressure after extending his winning streak to a career-best 24. they are so used to me winning but it s not that simple he said. i had a feeling this could be a tough match. i had a bad start but i bounced back. i always want to play better than i am but i thought i was pretty ok. french open champion is out of the tournament after a five-set defeat by dominik hrbaty. hrbaty defeated the 10th seed 7-6 (7-5) 6-7 (8-10) 6-7 (3-7) 6-1 6-3 in a match lasting four hours and 21 minutes. the pair traded 16 service breaks during an exhausting baseline battle with hrbaty taking a decisive advantage in the eighth game of the final set. hrbaty will now play 2002 champion who outlasted american kevin kim 3-6 6-2 6-7 6-2 6-2.

Sports

us prepares for hybrid onslaught sales of hybrid cars in the us are set to double in 2005 research suggests. research group jd power estimates sales will hit 200 000 in 2005 despite higher prices and customer scepticism. carmakers are starting to build hybrid sports utility vehicles (suvs) the four-wheel-drive vehicles which now dominate the us car market. hybrids cut both petrol consumption and emissions by combining a petrol engine with an electric motor constantly kept charged by extra engine power. several jurisdictions notably the state of california mandate low emissions for new cars. equally the rise in oil prices over the past year has sparked hopes that consumers may be tempted by potential savings of a few hundred dollars a year on fuel. at the detroit motor show a range of manufacturers are prominently displaying their hybrid credentials. toyota has led the market to date with the prius popularised by a number of celebrities keen to burnish their green credentials. in april it will launch a hybrid version of its highlander suv with an suv from its luxury lexus marque due later in the year. honda has three hybrids on the market and between them the two japanese carmakers sold more than 80 000 units last year. ford which has sold 4 000 of its first hybrid since its launch in august is bringing a hybrid suv - the mariner - to market a year ahead of schedule with plans for three more models by 2008. gm has a hybrid pickup on the market and is showing two concept suvs in detroit. even sports car maker porsche may join the race although it insists it is still considering whether to hybridise its cayenne suv. others remain more sceptical. nissan has bought toyota s hybrid technology but plans to bring out its first model only in 2006. we want to make sure we are not concentrating on one technology nissan chief executive carlos ghosn said. we will not be surprised by any acceleration or deceleration in the hybrid market. volkswagen meanwhile says it will focus on clean-burning diesel engines instead. and some watchers point out that the price tag on a hybrid - upwards of $3 000 above that of an equivalent normal-engined car and suspicion of the technology - may still cool its attraction. the average consumers aren t willing to pay that premium for a car they won t drive more than six years said anthony pratt from jd power.

Business

businesses fail to plan for hiv companies fail to draw up plans to cope with hiv/aids until it affects 20% of people in a country new research says. the finding comes in a report published on thursday by the world economic forum harvard and the un aids agency. too few companies are responding proactively to the social and business threats said dr kate taylor head of the wef s global health initiative. nearly 9 000 business leaders in 104 countries were surveyed for business and hiv/aids: commitment and action dr taylor described the level of action taken by businesses as revealed by the report as too little too late . the issue will be highlighted to business and world leaders at the world economic forum which meets in davos switzerland next week. the wef report shows that despite the fact that 14 000 people contract hiv/aids every day concern among businesses has dropped by 23% in the last 12 months. most (71%) have no policies in place to address the disease. nor could over 65% of the business leaders surveyed say or estimate the prevalence of hiv among their staff. the un programme tackling aids unaids pointed out that having a clear strategy for dealing with hiv/aids was a good investment as well as being socially responsible. one company that does have a plan is anglo-american the international mining company which estimates an hiv prevalence of 24% among its 130 000-strong southern african workforce. over the last two years the company has implemented extensive voluntary counselling and testing for hiv infection coupled with anti-retroviral therapy for employees progressing to aids. over 90% of the 2 200 employees who have accessed and remained on treatment are well and have returned to normal work. effective action on hiv/aids is synonymous with good business management and leads to more profitable and sustainable operations said brian brink senior vice-president health at anglo-american. companies should encourage all workers to know their hiv status making it as routine as monitoring blood pressure or cholesterol he said. providing access to treatment is a critical part of this. across sub-saharan africa even in countries with an hiv prevalence of 10-19% only around 7% of companies have formal hiv/aids policies in place according to the report. the gap is even wider in china ethiopia india nigeria and russia the so-called next wave countries which are predicted to experience the highest numbers of new hiv/aids cases worldwide by 2010. the report adds an important building block to our understanding of how the business community is experiencing the hiv/aids epidemic and to whether and how it is reacting said david bloom professor of economics and demography at the harvard school of public health. the wef report concludes that businesses need to understand their exposure to hiv/aids risks and come up with good local practices to manage them. a key priority in both high and low-prevalence settings said the wef is to establish a policy based on non-discrimination and confidentiality.

Business

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

Business

cyber criminals step up the pace so-called phishing attacks that try to trick people into handing over confidential details have boomed in 2004 say security experts. the number of phishing e-mail messages stopped by security firm messagelabs has risen more than tenfold in less than 12 months. in 2004 it detected more than 18 million phishing e-mail messages. other statistics show that in 2004 73% of all e-mail was spam and one in 16 messages were infected with a virus. in its end-of-year report messagelabs said that phishing had become the top security threat and most popular form of attack among cyber criminals. in september 2003 messagelabs caught only 273 phishing e-mails that tried to make people visit fake versions of the websites run by real banks and financial organisations. but by september 2004 it was stopping more than two million phishing related e-mail messages per month. worryingly said the firm phishing gangs were using increasingly sophisticated techniques to harvest useful information such as login details or personal data. older attacks relied on users not spotting the fact that the site they were visiting was fake but more recent phishing e-mails simply try to steal details as soon as a message is opened. other phishing scams try to recruit innocent people into acting as middlemen for laundering money or goods bought with stolen credit cards. e-mail security attacks remain unabated in their persistence and ferocity said mark sunner chief technology officer at messagelabs. in just 12 months phishing has firmly established itself as a threat to any organisation or individual conducting business online he said. mr sunner said messagelabs was starting to see some phishing attacks become very focused on one company or organisation. already particular businesses are threatened and blackmailed indicating a shift from the random scattergun approach to customised attacks designed to take advantage of the perceived weaknesses of some businesses he said. although phishing attacks grew substantially throughout 2004 viruses and spam remain popular with cyber-criminals and vandals. one of the biggest outbreaks took place in january when the mydoom virus started circulating. to date the company has caught more than 60 million copies of the virus. also up this year was the amount of spam in circulation. in 2003 only 40% of messages were spam. but by the end of 2004 almost three-quarters of messages were junk.

Science_and_Techology

ferguson hails man utd s resolve manchester united s alex ferguson has praised his players gutsy performance in the 1-0 win at aston villa. that was our hardest away game of the season and it was a fantastic game of football end-to-end with lots of good passing said the old trafford boss. we showed lots of character and guts and we weren t going to lose. i look at that fixture and think we ve been there and won while arsenal and chelsea have yet to come and villa may have some players back when they do. ferguson also hailed senior stars ryan giggs and roy keane who came off the bench for the injured john o shea. roy came on and brought a bit of composure to the midfield which we needed and which no other player has got. giggs was a tremendous threat and he brings tremendous penetration. all we can do is maintain our form play as we are and we ll get our rewards.

Sports

home phones face unclear future the fixed line phone in your home could soon be an endangered species. research by handset maker nokia shows that more and more people are using their mobile phone for every call they make or take. according to the study more than 45 million people in the uk germany us and south korea now only use a mobile. it showed that people keep their fixed line phone because call charges are lower but most of those questioned said the future was definitely mobile. the nokia-sponsored research showed that mobiles and fixed phones were used for different purposes. home phones were used for longer calls but conversations on mobiles tended to be shorter between mobiles and to friends. in the uk 69% of those questioned said they turned to their fixed phone because it was still cheaper to use than a mobile. however when pressed few could say with accuracy how tariffs on fixed and mobile phones compared. in the us and germany many of those interviewed said they used the fixed phone because it was more reliable than a mobile handset and let them get access to the net at relatively high speeds. in all the countries where interviews were carried out older people were more likely to use a fixed line phone more than a mobile. women aged 50 or above almost never use a mobile phone the research found. the move to mobile was most pronounced in south korea where 65% of those questioned said they already make most of their calls from a mobile. 18% said they would not get a landline if they moved house. many of those questioned said they had an emotional connection to their fixed phone that drew on its position in the home and the cosiness of making a call there. nokia said these findings had implications for mobile operators who must work hard to ensure that mobiles are seen as cheap reliable and providing good call quality. the survey also showed that it is not just voice calls that are going wireless. some of those questioned said they were looking to use a mobile or wireless service to get net access within the next couple of years. polling firm mori interviewed more than 6 000 people in the uk us germany and south korea for the survey.

Science_and_Techology

gadget show heralds mp3 season partners of those who love their hi-tech gear may want to get their presents in early as experts predict a gadget shortage this christmas. with apple s ipod topping wish lists again there may not be enough ipod minis to go round predicts oliver irish editor of gadget magazine stuff. the ipod mini is likely to be this year s tracey island said mr irish. stuff has compiled a list of the top 10 gadgets for 2004 and the ipod is at number one. for anyone bewildered by the choice of gadgets on the market stuff and what hi-fi are hosting a best-of gadget show in london this weekend. star of the show will be sony s qrio robot an all-singing all-dancing football-playing man-machine who can even hold intelligent conversations. but he is not for sale and sony has no commercial plans for the robot. he will greet visitors and is flying in from japan. he probably has his own airplane seat that is how highly sony prize him said mr irish. also on display will be a virtual keyboard which projects itself onto any flat surface. the event will play host to a large collection of digital music players from companies such as creative sony and philips as well as the ubiquitously fashionable ipod from apple. suggestions that it could be a gaming or wireless christmas are unlikely to come true as mp3 players remain the most popular stocking filler said mr irish. demand is huge and apple has promised that it can supply enough but people might struggle to get their hands on ipod minis said mr irish. for those who like their gadgets to be multi-talented the gizmondo a powerful gaming console with gps and gprs that also doubles up as an mp3 player movie player and camera could be a must-have. what is impressive is how much it can do and how well it can do them said mr irish. this christmas gadgets will not be an all-male preserve. women will be getting gadgets from husbands and boyfriends as well as buying them for themselves said mr irish. gadgets nowadays are lifestyle products rather than just for geeks.

Science_and_Techology

beijingers fume over parking fees choking traffic jams in beijing are prompting officials to look at reorganising car parking charges. car ownership has risen fast in recent years and there are now two and a half million cars on the city s roads. the trouble is that the high status of car ownership is matched by expensive fees at indoor car parks making motorists reluctant to use them. instead roads are being clogged by drivers circling in search of a cheaper outdoor option. the price differences between indoor and outdoor lots are unreasonable said wang yan an official from the beijing municipal commission for development and reform quoted in the state-run china daily newspaper. mr wang who is in charge of collecting car parking fees said his team would be looking at adjusting parking prices to close the gap. indoor parking bays can cost up to 250% more than outdoor ones. sports fans who drive to matches may also find themselves the target of the commission s road rage. it wants them to use public transport and is considering jacking up the prices of car parks near sports grounds. mr wang said his review team may scrap the relatively cheap hourly fee near such places and impose a higher flat rate during matches. indoor parking may be costly but it is not always secure. mr wang s team are also going to look into complaints from residents about poor service received in exchange for compulsory monthly fees of up to 400 yuan ($48; £26). the beijing authorities decided two years ago that visiting foreign dignitaries motorcades should not longer get motorcycle outriders as they blocked the traffic. unclogging beijing s increasingly impassable streets is a major concern for the chinese authorities who are building dozens of new roads to create a showcase modern city ahead of the 2008 olympic games.

Business

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

Business

football manager scores big time for the past decade or so the virtual football fans among us will have become used to the annual helping of championship manager (cm). indeed it seems like there has been a cm game for as many years as there have been pcs. however last year was the final time that developers sports interactive (si) and publishers eidos would work together. they decided to go their separate ways and each kept a piece of the franchise. si kept the game s code and database and eidos retained rights to the cm brand and the look and feel of the game. so at the beginning of this year fans faced a new situation. eidos announced the next cm game with a new team to develop it from scratch whilst si developed the existing code further to be released with new publishers sega under the name football manager. so what does this mean well football manager is the spiritual successor to the cm series and it has been released earlier than expected. at this point cm5 looks like it will ship early next year. but given that football manager 2005 is by and large the game that everybody knows and loves how does this new version shape up a game like fm2005 could blind you with statistics. it has an obscene number of playable leagues an obscene number of manageable teams and a really obscene number of players and staff from around the world in the database with stats faithfully researched and compiled by a loyal army of fans. but that does not do justice to the game really. what we are talking about is the most realistic and satisfying football management game to ever grace the earth. you begin by picking the nations and leagues you want to manage teams from for instance england and scotland. that will give you a choice not just of the four main scottish leagues but the english premiership all the way down to the conference north and south. of course you might be looking for european glory or to get hold of abramovich s millions in which case you can take control at chelsea or even barcelona real madrid ac milan ... the list goes on a very long way. once in a team you will be told by the board what they expect of you. sometimes it is promotion or a place in europe sometimes it is consolidation or a brave relegation battle. it might even be a case of champions or else. obviously the expectations are linked to the team you choose so choose wisely. then it is time to look at your squad work out your tactics seeing how much cash if any you have got to splash having a look at the transfer market sorting out the training schedule and making sure your backroom staff are up to it. then bring on the matches which are once more available in the ever-improving top down 2d view. with the exception of the improved user interface on the surface not much else seems to have changed. however there have been a lot of changes under the bonnet as well - things like the manager mind-games which let you talk to the media about the opposition bosses. the match engine is also much improved and it is more of a joy than ever to watch. in fact just about every area of the game has been tweaked and it leads to an ever more immersive experience. with a game that is so complex and so open-ended there are of course a few glitches but nowhere near the sorts of problems that have blighted previous releases. with so many calculations to perform the game can take some time to process in between matches though there have been improvements in this area. and a sport like football which is so high profile and unpredictable itself can never be modelled quite to everybody s satisfaction. but this time around a great deal of hard work has been put in to ensure that any oddities that do crop up are cosmetic only and do not affect gameplay. and if there are problems further down the line sports interactive have indicated their usual willingness to support and develop the game as far as possible. in all there are many more tweaks and improvements. if you were a fan of the previous cm games then fm2005 might make you forget there was anything else before it. if you are new to the genre but like the idea of trying to take margate into the premiership spurs into europe or even putting rangers back on the top of the tree fm2005 could be the best purchase you ever made. just be warned that the family might not see you much at christmas. football manager 2005 out now for the pc and the mac

Science_and_Techology

file-swappers ready new network legal attacks on websites that help people swap pirated films have forced the development of a system that could be harder to shut down. one site behind the success of the bittorrent file-swapping system is producing its own software that avoids the pitfalls of the earlier program. a test version of the new exeem program will be released in late january. but doubts remain about the new networks ability to ensure files being swapped are quality copies . in late december movie studios launched a legal campaign against websites that helped people swap pirated movies using the bittorrent network. the legal campaign worked because of the way that bittorrent is organised. that file-sharing system relies on links called trackers that point users to others happy to share the file they are looking for. shutting down sites that listed trackers crippled the bittorrent network. one of the sites shut down by the legal campaign was suprnova.org which helped boost the popularity of the bittorrent system by checking that trackers led to the movies or tv programmes they claimed to. now the man behind suprnova.org who goes by the nickname sloncek is preparing to release software for a new file-swapping network dubbed exeem. in an interview with novastream web radio sloncek said exeem would combine ideas from the bittorrent and kazaa file-sharing systems. like bittorrent exeem will have trackers that help point people toward the file they want. like kazaa these trackers will be held by everyone. there will be no centrally maintained list. this said sloncek should make the system less vulnerable to legal action aimed at stopping people swapping pirated movies and music. the exeem software has been under development for a few months and is currently being tested by a closed group of users. an early public version of the software should be available before february. sloncek said that currently only a windows version of the software was in development. there were no plans for a linux or mac version. he said that costs of writing the software will be paid for by adverts appearing in the finished version of the program. despite suprnova administrator sloncek s involvement with exeem the basic technology appears to have been developed by a firm called swarm systems that is based on caribbean island saint kitts and nevis. users of the exeem system will be able to rate files being swapped to help stop the spread of fake files sloncek told novastream. dr johan pouwelse a researcher at the delft university of technology who studies peer-to-peer networks said exeem was the next evolution in file-sharing systems. but he said it would struggle to be as popular as bittorrent and suprnova because early versions were not taking enough care to make sure good copies of files were being shared. exeem cannot prevent pollution he said. the rating system in exeem seems flawed because it is easy to insert both fake files and fake ratings he said. studies have shown that organisations working for record labels and movie studios have worked to undermine kazaa by putting in fakes. by contrast moderators on suprnova made sure files being shared were high quality. the moderators are the difference between having a system that works and one that s full of crap like kazaa he said. there is a fundamental tension between distribution and integrity he said. mr pouwelse said that future versions of file-sharing systems are likely to incorporate some kind of distributed reputation system that lets moderators prove who they are to the network and rate which files are worth downloading. when big files were being shared moderation systems were key said mr pouwelse. he added that the legal attacks on bittorrent had driven people away from sites such as suprnova but many users had simply migrated to other tracker listing sites many of which have seen huge increases in traffic. it s hard to compete with free he said. no-one from the motion picture association of america was immediately available for comment on the file-sharing development.

Science_and_Techology

macy s owner buys rival for $11bn us retail giant federated department stores is to buy rival may department stores for $11bn (£5.7bn). the deal will bring together famous stores like macy s bloomingdale s and marshall field s creating the largest department store chain in the us. the combined firm will operate about 1 000 stores across the us with combined annual sales of $30bn. the two companies facing competition from the likes of wal-mart tried to merge two years ago but talks failed. sources familiar with the deal said that negotiations between the two companies sped up after may s chairman and chief executive gene kahn resigned in january. as part of the deal federated - owner of macy s and bloomingdale s - will assume $6bn of may s debt bringing the deal s total value to $17bn. directors at both companies have approved the deal and it is expected to conclude by the third quarter of this year. may has struggled to compete against larger department store groups such as federated and other retailers such as wal-mart. federated expects the merger to boost earnings from 2007 but the deal will cost it $1bn in one-off charges. we have taken the first step toward combining two of the best department store companies in america creating a new retail company with truly national scope and presence said terry lundgren federated s chairman. some analysts see the merger as a rescue deal for may. without this deal may would have been to put it bluntly washed up said kurt barnard president of barnard s retail consulting group. federated has annual sales of $15.6bn while may s yearly sales are $14.4bn.

Business

uk gets official virus alert site a rapid alerting service that tells home computer users about serious internet security problems is being launched by the uk government. the service it safe will issue warnings about damaging viruses software vulnerabilities and weaknesses on devices such as mobile phones. alerts tell people how the threats affect them and what they can do to avoid trouble and protect themselves. the service will be free and those who sign up can get e-mail or text alerts. the scheme is aimed at home users and small businesses. the government estimates it will issue security alerts about six to 10 times a year based on previous experience of virus outbreaks. there is a clear need for easy-to-understand and simple independent advice for non-technically minded people who use computers either at home or at work said home office minister hazel blears. the purpose of this new government service is to ensure computer users are aware of the risks involved and how to deal with them easily and effectively without causing alarm. those signing up will only be told about the most serious security threats that have the potential to affect millions of people. full-time staff are being employed to comb through the many hundreds of alerts issued each year by computer security firms to spot which ones have the potential to catch out a large number of people between alerts the service will occasionally send messages giving people advice about safe ways to use their computers and phones. it safe will take our technical expertise and use it to help home users understand the risks and keep their computer systems mobile phones and a range of related consumer electronic items safe said roger cumming director of the national infrastructure security coordination centre (niscc). the niscc which is running the service also stressed that those signing up would still need to use anti-virus software firewalls and software updates to stay secure. warnings about security problems will tell people what the problem is how it affects them and what they can do to avoid trouble. alerts will not be issued unless users can do something to protect themselves against the threat. this might include downloading an update from an anti-virus vendor or updating software to close loopholes and fix vulnerabilities. however no software patches or programs will actually be dispensed through the site. the alerts will tell people how to go about getting hold of patches from security firms. the niscc spokesman said the site and alerting service would stay in existence for as long as there were security bugs on home computers and other gadgets. government statistics show that more than half of all uk households own a home computer. it was estimated that almost 13 million of these were able to access the internet in 2004. the launch comes as the number of viruses and other malicious programs in existence is reaching unprecedented numbers. in september 2004 the number of malicious programs circulating topped the 100 000 mark. some fear that this figure could hit 150 000 by september 2005. the creation of the national alert service follows similar efforts in the netherlands and us. the national alerting service for the netherlands (aka de waarschuwingsdienst) and the us national cyber alerting service also tell citizens of serious security threats.

Science_and_Techology

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

Science_and_Techology

internet boom for gift shopping cyberspace is becoming a very popular destination for christmas shoppers. forecasts predict that british people will spend £4bn buying gifts online during the festive season an increase of 64% on 2003. surveys also show that the average amount that people are spending is rising as is the range of goods that they are happy to buy online. savvy shoppers are also using the net to find the hot presents that are all but sold out in high street stores. almost half of the uk population now shop online according to figures collected by the interactive media in retail group which represents web retailers. about 85% of this group 18m people expect to do a lot of their christmas gift buying online this year reports the industry group. on average each shopper will spend £220 and britons lead europe in their affection for online shopping. almost a third of all the money spent online this christmas will come out of british wallets and purses compared to 29% from german shoppers and only 4% from italian gift buyers. james roper director of the imrg said shoppers were now much happier to buy so-called big ticket items such as lcd television sets and digital cameras. mr roper added that many retailers were working hard to reassure consumers that online shopping was safe and that goods ordered as presents would arrive in time for christmas. he advised consumers to give shops a little more time than usual to fulfil orders given that online buying is proving so popular. a survey by hostway suggests that many men prefer to shop online to avoid the embarrassment of buying some types of presents such as lingerie for wives and girlfriends. much of this online shopping is likely to be done during work time according to research carried out by security firm saint bernard software. the research reveals that up to two working days will be lost by staff who do their shopping via their work computer. worst offenders will be those in the 18-35 age bracket suggests the research who will spend up to five hours per week in december browsing and buying at online shops. iggy fanlo chief revenue officer at shopping.com said that the growing numbers of people using broadband was driving interest in online shopping. when you consider narrowband and broadband the conversion to sale is two times higher he said. higher speeds meant that everything happened much faster he said which let people spend time browsing and finding out about products before they buy. the behaviour of online shoppers was also changing he said. the single biggest reason people went online before this year was price he said. the number one reason now is convenience. very few consumers click on the lowest price he said. they are looking for good prices and merchant reliability. consumer comments and reviews were also proving popular with shoppers keen to find out who had the most reliable customer service. data collected by ebay suggests that some smart shoppers are getting round the shortages of hot presents by buying them direct through the auction site. according to ebay uk there are now more than 150 robosapiens remote control robots for sale via the site. the robosapiens toy is almost impossible to find in online and offline stores. similarly many shoppers are turning to ebay to help them get hold of the hard-to-find slimline playstation 2 which many retailers are only selling as part of an expensive bundle. the high demand for the playstation 2 has meant that prices for it are being driven up. in shops the ps2 is supposed to sell for £104.99. in some ebay uk auctions the price has risen to more than double this figure. many people are also using ebay to get hold of gadgets not even released in this country. the portable version of the playstation has only just gone on sale in japan yet some enterprising ebay users are selling the device to uk gadget fans.

Science_and_Techology

us economy still growing says fed most areas of the us saw their economy continue to expand in december and early january the us federal reserve said in its latest beige book report. of the 12 us regions it identifies for the study 11 showed stronger economic growth with only the cleveland area falling behind with a mixed rating. consumer spending was higher in december than november and festive sales were also up on 2003. the employment picture also improved the fed said. labour markets firmed in a number of districts but wage pressures generally remained modest the beige book said. several districts reported higher prices for building materials and manufacturing inputs but most reported steady or only slightly higher overall price levels. the report added that residential real estate activity remained strong and that commercial real estate activity strengthened in most districts. office leasing was especially brisk in washington dc and new york city two of the nation s strongest commercial markets the fed said.

Business

home loan approvals rising again the number of mortgages approved in the uk has risen for the first time since may last year according to lending figures from the bank of england. new loans in december rose to 83 000 slightly higher than november s nine-year low of 77 000. mortgage lending rose by £7.1bn in december up from a £6.4bn rise in november. the figures contradict a survey from the british bankers association which said approvals were at a five-year low. analysts say the figures show the market may be stabilising but still point to further house price softness. the modest rise in mortgage approvals and lending in december reinforces the impression that the housing market is currently slowing steadily rather than sharply said global insight analyst howard archer commenting on the boe s figures. the bba believes that the property market is continuing to cool down. changes to mortgage regulation may have artificially depressed figures in november thus flattering the december figures analysts said. in october last year new rules came into force which meant some lenders were forced to withdraw mortgage products temporarily in november and defer some lending until they had made sure they had complied with the rules properly. separately the bank of england said that consumer credit rose by £1.5bn in december more than the £1.4bn expected and above the £1.4bn reported in the previous month.

Business

umaga ready for fearsome lions all blacks captain tama umaga has warned the british and irish lions will be his most fearsome opponents yet ahead of their summer tour. but umaga in england for saturday s irb rugby aid match also backed new zealand to win the three-test series against the lions. he told bbc sport: it s potentially the most fearsome line-up i ve ever come up against. they re awesome. but i d back us all the way to beat them when they come over. lions boss sir clive woodward is set to announce his squad for the june-july tour next month. when woodward was appointed last year it was widely believed he would rely heavily on his former england players. but umaga said: he d be hard pushed to do that now considering the shape of the six nations. don t get me wrong england have got a lot of talented guys and i m sure there are some of them who ll make the lions test xv. but you can t disguise wales and ireland in particular. some of the tries they ve scored have been great. i ll admit it ll be fairly awesome lining up against the likes of brian o driscoll. umaga will meet o driscoll in saturday s rugby aid match at twickenham with the irish captain leading the northern hemisphere side. o driscoll is among a host of players in the northern hemisphere squad coached by woodward that are tipped for lions call-ups. it ll be good for us to get an early idea of some of these guys although a lot can change between now and june umaga said. the 31-year-old admitted interest in the lions tour was immense calling it the biggest thing to hit new zealand since lord of the rings . he added: as players it s enough for us to be driven by the rarity of playing the lions. in fact it s not just us all blacks - it s the talk of the country. umaga admitted the fear of injury weighed on his mind ahead of saturday s charity game which features a host of big names including george gregan andrew mehrtens and chris latham. but he admitted the value of the cause - proceeds of the match will go to aiding victims of the tsunami - easily won him over. the second [southern hemisphere coach] rod macqueen made the approach i didn t hesitate. it was great when new zealand rugby then gave me the all clear. thankfully i didn t know anyone that was involved in the tragedy of the tsunami but you couldn t miss all the horrific reports on the news. there are so many people that were affected are still affected and will be affected for a long time. it s just good to know we can do something minor to help out. - the match will be televised on bbc one at 1400 gmt on saturday.

Sports

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

Sports

williams stays on despite dispute matt williams insists he has no thoughts of quitting as national coach as a result of the power struggle currently gripping scottish rugby. the chairman chief executive and three non-executive directors all departed in a row over the game s future direction. but williams said: i want to make it clear that i m committed totally to scottish rugby. i ve brought my family here and we ve immersed ourselves in scottish life. there s no way that i m walking away. however he attempted to steer clear of taking sides in the dispute. i d like to stress that the national team is separate to the political situation he said. when you come to an undertaking like this and you are trying to make a difference then there are always people who will begrudge you who are jealous and want to try to drag you down. when you have that situation you have to have the courage of your convictions to see it through. there was some very unhelpful and uninformed comment that the national team had received a massive increase in budget at the expense of other parts of scottish rugby and that is simply not the case. like all good coaches you go and ask for an increase. but we were told in no uncertain terms that the financial situation did not allow that. the idea that we are lighting cigars with £20 notes while the rest of scottish rugby flounders is absolutely untrue. we also attracted criticism because of the number of days players spent with the national team. but let me give you the truth. our irish counterparts whom we have to compete with in a few days time had 70 days together at the summer. they are currently in camp now and they will have another 21 days in camp before the six nations. that means they will have 91 days away from their club from july until the six nations. we on the other hand will have 16. there must be a win-win philosophy and attitude within scottish rugby and that is what we are after - both groups winning not competing.

Sports

gazprom in $36m back-tax claim the nuclear unit of russian energy giant gazprom is reportedly facing a 1bn rouble ($35.7m; £19.1m) back-tax claim for the 2001-2003 period. vedomosti newspaper reported that russian authorities made the demand at the end of last year. the paper added that most of the taxes claimed are linked to the company s export activity. gazprom the biggest gas company in the world took over nuclear fuel giant atomstroieksport in october 2004. the main project of atomstroieksport is the building of a nuclear plant in iran which has been a source of tension between russia and the us. gazprom is one of the key players in the complex russian energy market where the government of vladimir putin has made moves to regain state influence over the sector. gazprom is set to merge with state oil firm rosneft the company that eventually acquired yuganskneftegas the main unit of embattled oil giant yukos. claims for back-taxes was a tool used against yukos and led to the enforced sale yuganskneftegas. some analysts fear the kremlin will continue to use these sort of moves to boost the efforts of the state to regain control over strategically important sectors such as oil.

Business

gadget market to grow in 2005 the explosion in consumer technology is to continue into 2005 delegates at the world s largest gadget show in las vegas have been told. the number of gadgets in the shops is predicted to grow by 11% while devices which talk to each other will become increasingly important. everything is going digital kirsten pfeifer from the consumer electronics association told the bbc news website. the consumer electronics show (ces) featured the pick of 2005 s products. consumers are controlling what they want and technologies like hdtvs [high-definition tvs] digital radio and digital cameras will remain strong in 2005. all the products on show really showed the breadth and depth of the industry. despite showing diversity some delegates attending complained that the showcase lacked as much wow factor as in previous years. the portable technologies on show also reflected one of the buzzwords of ces which was the time and place shifting of multimedia content - being able to watch and listen to video and music anywhere at any time. at the start of last year s ces the cea predicted there would be an average growth of 4% in 2004. that figure was surpassed with the rise in popularity of portable digital music players personal video recorders and digital cameras. it was clear also that gadgets are becoming a lot more about lifestyle choice with fashion and personalisation becoming increasingly key to the way gadgets are designed. part of this has been the rise in spending power of the generation x-ers who have grown up with technology and who now have the spending power and desire for more devices that suit them. more than 57% of the consumer electronics market is made up of female buyers according to cea research. hybrid devices which combine a number of multimedia functions were also in evidence on the show floor. a lot of this is driven by just the ability to do it said stephen baker a consumer electronics analyst with retail research firm npd group. some of these functions cost next to nothing to add. as well as the show floor showcasing everything from tiny wearable mp3 players to giant high-definition tvs several keynote speeches were made by industry leaders such as microsoft chief bill gates. despite several embarrassing technical glitches during mr gate s pre-show speech he announced several new partnerships - mainly for the us market. he unveiled new ways of letting people take tv shows recorded on personal video recorders and watch them back on portable devices. he disappointed some however by failing to announce any details of the next generation of the xbox games console. another disappointment was the lack of exposure sony s new portable games device the psp had at the show. sony said the much-anticipated gadget would most likely start shipping in march for the us and europe. it went on sale in japan before christmas. there were only two psps embedded in glass cabinets at the show though and no representatives to discuss further details. a sony representative told the bbc news website this was because sony did not consider it to be part of their consumer technology offering. elsewhere at the show there was a plethora of colour and plasma screens including samsung s 102-inch (2.6 metre) plasma - the largest in the world. industry experts were also excited about high-definition technologies coming to the fore in 2005 with new formats for dvds coming out which will hold six times as much data as conventional dvds. with so many devices on the move there were a lot of products on show offering external storage like seagate s 5gb pocket sized external hard drive which won an innovation for engineering and design prize. more than 120 000 trade professionals attended ces in las vegas which officially ran from 6 to 9 january.

Science_and_Techology

mobiles get set for visual radio the growth in the mobile phone market in the past decade has been nothing less than astonishing but the ability to communicate on the go is not the only reason we are hooked. games cameras and music players have all been added to our handsets in the last few years but 2005 could see another big innovation that won t just see a change in our mobile phone habits - it might alter the way we listen to the radio. finnish handset giant nokia has been working on a technology called visual radio which takes an existing fm signal from a radio station and enables that station to add enhancements such as information and pictures. it is not the first time that such an idea has been suggested - the early days of dab digital radio had similar intentions that never really saw the light of day. one problem is that the name visual radio leads people to think of television but reidar wasenius a senior project manager at nokia was adamant that visual radio should not be confused with the more traditional medium. he said: i m very happy to say it s not television what we re talking about is an enhancement of radio as we know it today. if you have a visual radio enabled handset when you hear an artist you don t know or there s a competition or vote that you d like to participate in you pull out your handset and with one click you turn on a visual channel parallel to the on-air broadcast you ve just been listening to. that visual channel is run from a computer within the radio station and sends out different kinds of information to the handset depending on what you are listening to. as well as details on the track or artist of a particular song there is also the ability to interact immediately with the radio station itself in a similar way to digital television s red button content. possible interactive content includes competitions votes and even the chance to rate the song that is playing. but the interactive aspect will make the service especially attractive to radio stations who will be able to track the number of people taking part in such activities on a real-time basis. this in turn should lead to an additional source of revenue as it is very likely that advertisers will be keen to exploit new opportunities to reach listeners. as the visual radio content is transmitted by existing gprs technology you would need to have that service enabled by your network. and there will be a cost for the service as well although it may depend on your usage. if you enjoy the visual channel occasionally and interact it ll be two or three pounds per month said mr wasenius. but typically what we see happening is the operator offering a package deal for an all you can eat arrangement per month. the payment system could therefore be similar to the way that broadband internet works versus dial-up connections. one thing that is for sure - assuming that nokia retains its market share in handsets it is estimating that there will be 100 million visual radio-enabled mobile phones in circulation by the end of 2006. basically visual radio is not really revolutionary but rather an evolution where we are providing tools with which people can participate in radio much more easily than ever before. the first visual radio service in the uk will begin in a few months time with virgin radio who are positive about the impact it could have on their listeners. station manager steve taylor commented: listeners can interact with the radio station in a new way. not only does this give listeners more information on the music we play but means they can instantly purchase things they like; mp3 music downloads and the latest gig tickets. initially visual radio functionality will be limited to two nokia handsets due out soon - the 3230 and 7710 - but if successful it is very likely that other manufacturers will want to join them. listen again to the interview on the radio five live website.

Science_and_Techology

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

Business

wall street cool to ebay s profit shares in online auction house ebay fell 9.8% in after-hours trade on wednesday after its quarterly profits failed to meet market expectations. despite seeing net profits rise by 44% to $205.4m (£110m) during october to december from $142m a year earlier wall street had expected more. ebay stock fell to $92.9 in after-hours trade from a $103.05 end on nasdaq. ebay s net revenue for the quarter rose to $935.8m from $648.4m boosted by growth at its paypal payment service. excluding special items ebay s profit was 33 cents a share but analysts had expected 34 cents. i think wall street has gotten a bit ahead of ebay this quarter and for the 2005 year. said janco partners analyst martin pyykkonen. for 2004 as a whole ebay earned $778.2m on sales of $3.27bn. ebay president and chief executive meg whitman called 2004 an outstanding success that generated tremendous momentum for 2005. i m more confident than ever that the decisions and investments we re making today will ensure a bright future for the company and our community of users around the world she said. ebay now forecasts 2005 revenue of $4.2bn to $4.35bn and earnings excluding items of $1.48 to $1.52 per share. analysts had previously estimated that ebay would achieve 2005 revenues of $4.37bn and earnings of $1.62 per share excluding items.

Business

us consumer confidence up consumers confidence in the state of the us economy is at its highest for five months and they are optimistic about 2005 an influential survey says. the feel-good factor among us consumers rose in december for the first time since july according to new data. the conference board survey of 5 000 households pointed to renewed optimism about job creation and economic growth. us retailers have reported strong sales over the past 10 days after a slow start to the crucial festive season. according to figures also released on tuesday sales in shopping malls in the week to 25 december were 4.3% higher than in 2003 following a last minute rush. wal-mart the largest us retailer has said its december sales are expected to be better than previously forecast because of strong post-christmas sales. it is expecting annual sales growth of between 1% and 3% for the month. consumer confidence figures are considered a key economic indicator because consumer spending accounts for about two thirds of all economic activity in the united states. the continuing economic expansion combined with job growth has consumers ending this year on a high note said lynn franco director of the conference board s consumer research centre. and consumers outlook suggests that the economy will continue to expand in the first half of next year. the overall us economy has performed strongly in recent months prompting the federal reserve to increase interest rates five times since june.

Business

consumers drive french economy france s economic growth accelerated in the last three months of 2004 driven by consumer spending a report shows. gross domestic product (gdp) rose by 0.8% in the fourth quarter compared with the previous three month period the statistical office insee said. that expansion pushed annual growth to 2.3% the fastest rate in two years. consumer spending was up by 1.2% in the fourth quarter and there also was a rebound in business investment that gave the recovery an extra shove. analysts warned that france still was facing challenges and was unlikely to keep expanding at its current pace. france still has a strong economic growth said marc toutai an economist at natexis banques populaires. but if we check the figures in detail there s a problem. consumer spending is still high. but french households have spent their savings to consume. france can t sustain a high growth rate without an improvement in the job market. there s too much of a gap between growth and employment. unemployment levels are currently stuck at about 10% and is proving difficult to bring down despite government efforts. another worry is that demand in germany and italy two of france s main trading partners is sluggish. despite the concerns analysts pointed out that france was outperforming the majority of its european counterparts and that its economy was looking more robust than in previous years. as well as strong domestic demand exports climbed by 1.3% in the fourth quarter - the biggest increase in foreign sales for a year. it s an economic growth that seems well balanced said nicolas claquin an analyst at ccf. in the beginning of 2004 growth was mainly driven by consumer spending. here it gets contributions from investment and exports though household consumption is still strong. but we expect overall economic growth to fall to 2.0 percent in 2005.

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rich pickings for hi-tech thieves viruses trojans and other malicious programs sent on to the net to catch you out are undergoing a subtle change. the shift is happening as tech savvy criminals turn to technology to help them con people out of cash steal valuable data or take over home pcs. viruses written to make headlines by infecting millions are getting rarer. instead programs are now crafted for directly criminal ends and firms are tightening up networks with defences to combat the new wave of malicious code. the growing criminal use of malware has meant the end of the neat categorisation of different sorts of viruses and malicious programs. before now it has been broadly possible to name and categorise viruses by the method they use to spread and how they infect machines. but many of the viruses written by criminals roll lots of technical tricks together into one nasty package. you cannot put them in to the neat little box that you used to said pete simpson head of the threat laboratory at security firm clearswift. now viruses are just as likely to spread by themselves like worms or to exploit loopholes in browsers or hide in e-mail message attachments. it s about outright criminality now said mr simpson explaining why this change has come about. he said many of the criminal programs came from eastern europe where cash-rich organised gangs can find a ready supply of technical experts that will crank out code to order. former virus writer marek strihavka aka benny from the 29a virus writing group recently quit the malware scene partly because it was being taken over by spyware writers phishing gangs and spammers who are more interested in money rather than the technology. no longer do virus writers produce programs to show off their technical prowess to rivals in the underground world of malware authors. not least said paul king principal security consultant at cisco because the defences against such attacks are so common. in many ways the least likely way to do it is e-mail because most of us have got anti-virus and firewalls now he said. few of the malicious programs written by hi-tech thieves are cleverly written many are much more pragmatic and use tried and tested techniques to infect machines or to trick users into installing a program or handing over important data. if you think of criminals they do not do clever said mr king they just do what works. as the tactics used by malicious programs change said mr king so many firms were changing the way they defend themselves. now many scan machines that connect to the corporate networks to ensure they have not been compromised while off the core network. many will not let a machine connect and a worker get on with their job before the latest patches and settings have been uploaded. as well as using different tactics criminals also use technology for reasons that are much more transparent. the main motivation now is money said gary stowell spokesman for st bernard software. mr stowell said organised crime gangs were turning to computer crime because the risks of being caught were low and the rates of return were very high. with almost any phishing or spyware attack criminals are guaranteed to catch some people out and have the contacts to exploit what they recover. so-called spyware was proving very popular with criminals because it allowed them to take over machines for their own ends to steal key data from users or to hijack web browsing sessions to point people at particular sites. in some cases spyware was being written that searched for rival malicious programs on pcs it infects and then trying to erase them so it has sole ownership of that machine.

Science_and_Techology

veteran martinez wins thai title conchita martinez won her first title in almost five years with victory over anna-lena groenefeld at the volvo women s open in pattaya thailand. the 32-year-old spaniard came through 6-3 3-6 6-3 for her first title since berlin in 2000. it feels really good said martinez who is playing her last season on the tour. to come through like that in an important match feels good. it s been nearly five years and i didn t think i could do it. groenefeld was the more powerful player but could not match her opponent s relentless accuracy. it was my first final a new experience said the german. i think she played a good match a tough match but i tried to stay in there. i think the whole week was good for me.

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anti-tremor mouse stops pc shakes a special adaptor that helps people with hand tremors control a computer mouse more easily has been developed. the device uses similar steady cam technology found in camcorders to filter out shaking hand movements. people with hand tremors find it hard to use conventional mice for simple computer tasks because of the erratic movements of the cursor on the screen. about three million britons have some sort of hand tremor condition said the uk national tremor foundation. using a computer mouse is well known for being extremely hard for people with tremors so we re delighted to hear that a technology has been developed to address this problem said karen walsh from the uk national tremor foundation. most commonly associated with tremors is parkinson s disease but they can also be caused by other conditions like essential tremor (et). tremors more often affect older people but can hit all ages. et for example is genetic and can afflict people throughout their lives. the assistive mouse adapter (ama) is the brainchild of ibm researcher jim levine who developed the prototype after seeing his uncle who has parkinson s disease struggle with mouse control. i knew that there must be way to improve the situation for him and the millions of other tremor sufferers around the world including the elderly. the number of elderly computer users will increase as the population ages and at the same time the need for computer access grows he said. computer users plug the device into a pc and it can be adjusted depending on how severe the tremor is. it is also able to recognise multiple clicking on a mouse button caused by shaky digits. ibm said it would partner up with a small uk-based electronics firm montrose secam to produce the devices which will cost about £70. james cosgrave one of the company s directors said it would make a big difference to those with tremors. i m a pilot and my tremor condition has not limited my ability to fly a plane he said. but using a pc has proven almost impossible simply because everything revolves around using the mouse to accurately manipulate the tiny cursor on the screen. he said a prototype of the gadget had transformed his life. the device could help open up computing to millions more people who have found shaking to be a barrier. last year the office for national statistics reported that for the first time more than half of all households in britain had a home computer. with prices getting cheaper to get online too computer ownership is increasing. but although 62% of british people have tried the internet only 15% of britons aged 65 or over have been online. more than six million uk households now have a broadband net. by the middle of 2005 it is estimated that 50% of all uk net users will be on broadband. there are still millions using the net through dial-up connections too.

Science_and_Techology

lse sets date for takeover deal the london stock exchange (lse) is planning to announce a preferred takeover by the end of the month newspaper reports claim. the sunday telegraph said the lse s plan was further evidence it wants to retain tight control over its destiny. both deutsche boerse and rival euronext held talks with the london market last week over a possible offer. a £1.3bn offer from deutsche boerse has already been rejected while euronext has said it will make an all cash bid. speculation suggests that paris-based euronext has the facilities in place to make a bid of £1.4bn while its german rival may up its bid to the £1.5bn mark. neither has yet tabled a formal bid but the lse is expected to hold further talks with the two parties later this week. however the sunday telegraph report added that there are signs that deutsche boerse chief executive werner seifert is becoming increasingly impatient with the lse s managed bid process. despite insisting he wants to agree a recommended deal with the lse s board the newspaper suggested he may pull out of the process and put an offer directly to shareholders instead. the newspaper also claimed mr seifert was becoming increasingly frustrated with the pace of negotiations since deutsche boerse s £1.3bn offer was rejected in mid-december in particular the lse s decision to suspend talks over the christmas period. meanwhile the german exchange s offer has come under fire recently. unions for deutsche boerse staff in frankfurt have reportedly expressed fears that up to 300 jobs would be moved to london if the takeover is successful. others claim it will weaken the city s status as europe s financial centre while german politicians are also said to be angry over the market operator s promise to move its headquarters to london if a bid is successful. a further stumbling block is deutsche boerse s control over its clearstream unit the clearing house that processes securities transactions. lse shareholders fear it would create a monopoly situation weakening the position of shareholders when negotiating lower transaction fees for share dealings. lse and euronext do not have control over their clearing and settlement operations a situation which critics say is more transparent and competitive.

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tv calls after carroll error spurs boss martin jol said his team were robbed at manchester united after pedro mendes shot clearly crossed the line but was not given. the referee is already wearing an earpiece so why can t we just stop the game and get the decision right said jol after the 0-0 draw. but at the end of the day it s so obvious that pedro s shot was over the line it s incredible. we feel robbed but it s difficult for the linesman and referee to see it. mendes shot from 50 yards and united goalkeeper roy carroll spilled the ball into his own net before hooking it clear. jol added: we are not talking about the ball being a couple of centimetres or an inch or two over the line it was a metre inside the goal. what really annoys me is that we are here in 2005 watching something on a tv monitor within two seconds of the incident occurring and the referee isn t told about it. we didn t play particularly well but i am pleased - even now - with a point although we should have had three. mendes could not believe the goal was not given after seeing a replay. he said: my reaction on the pitch was to celebrate. it was a very nice goal it was clearly over the line - i ve never seen one so over the line and not given in my career. it s really really over. what can you do but laugh about it it s a nice goal and one to keep in my memory even though it didn t count. it s not every game you score from the halfway line. manchester united manager sir alex ferguson sympathised with tottenham and said the incident highlighted the need for video technology. i think it hammers home what a lot of people have been asking for and that s that technology should play a part in the game ferguson told mutv. what i was against originally was the time factor in video replays. but i read an article the other day which suggested that if a referee can t make up his mind after 30 seconds of watching a video replay then the game should carry on. thirty seconds is about the same amount of time it takes to organise a free-kick or take a corner or a goal-kick. so you wouldn t be wasting a lot of time. i think you could start off by using it for goal-line decisions. i think that would be an opening into a new area of football. arsenal boss arsene wenger also used the incident to highlight the need for video technology. when the whole world apart from the referee has seen there should be a goal at old trafford that just reinforces what i feel - there should be video evidence said wenger. it s a great example of where the referee could have asked to see a replay and would have seen in five seconds that it was a goal.

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bank opts to leave rates on hold the bank of england has left interest rates on hold at 4.75% for a sixth month in a row. the bank s monetary policy committee (mpc) decided to take no action amid mixed signals from the economy. but some economists predict a further rise in the cost of borrowing will come later this year. interest rates rose five times between november 2003 and august 2004 as soaring house prices and buoyant consumer data sparked inflation fears. bank of england governor mervyn king has recently warned against placing too much weight on one month s economic data suggesting the mpc is waiting for a clearer picture to emerge. economists see next week s inflation report from the mpc as key in assessing whether a further interest rate rise is necessary to keep the economy in check. slower consumer spending and a quieter housing market are likely to have convinced the mpc that rates should be left unchanged in recent months. inflation however has been rising faster than expected hitting an annual rate of 1.6% in december - its highest level in six months. data on wednesday also showed manufacturing output rose at its fastest rate since may last month reinforcing a view that economic growth was stronger than forecasts. and recent house surveys from the halifax and nationwide have indicated prices are still rising albeit at a slower pace than in recent years. philip shaw chief economist at investec securities said he believed rates would remain at 4.75% for the rest of the year although strong economic data could lead to a further hike. the economic landscape has changed quite considerably over the last couple of months he said. growth appears stronger and the mpc may become more concerned about inflation trends. howard archer economist at global insight said the mpc may well consider that the balance of risks to the growth and inflation outlook have moved from the downside to the upside . business groups welcomed the mpc s widely-expected move to leave rates on hold and cautioned against further rises. the british chambers of commerce (bcc) said it was concerned by the clamour in some quarters for early interest rate increases. we believe that these demands should be firmly resisted said david frost bcc director general. manufacturing still faces extremely serious problems and is performing poorly in spite of the recent revised figures. ian mccafferty chief economist at the cbi said the mpc faced an interesting challenge. consumers appear to have pulled in their horns over the holiday period and exporters are struggling with the strength of sterling he said. however the broader economy continues to show healthy growth and the tight labour market and buoyant commodity prices are nudging inflation higher.

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latest opera browser gets vocal net browser opera 8.0 due for official release at the end of next month will be the most accessible browser on the market according to its authors. the latest version of the net browser can be controlled by voice command and will read pages aloud. the voice features based on ibm technology are currently only available in the windows version. opera can also magnify text by up to 10 times and users can create style sheets its developers say. this will enable them to view pages with colours and fonts that they prefer. but the browser does not yet work well with screen reader software often used by blind people so its accessibility features are more likely to appeal to those with some residual vision. our mission was always to provide the best internet experience for everyone said opera spokeswoman berit hanson. so we would obviously not want to exclude disabled computer users. another feature likely to appeal to people with low vision is the ability to make pages fit to the screen width which eliminates the need for horizontal scrolling. the company points out that this will also appeal to anyone using opera with a handheld device. the company says that features like voice activation are not solely aimed at visually impaired people. our idea was to take a first step in making human-computer interaction more natural said ms hanson. people are not always in a situation where they can access a keyboard so this makes the web a more hands-free experience. unlike commercially available voice recognition software opera does not have to be trained to recognise an individual voice. around 50 voice commands are available and users will have to wear a headset which incorporates a microphone. the voice recognition function is currently only available in english. opera is free to download but a paid-for version comes without an ad banner in the top right hand corner and with extra support. opera began life as a research project - a spin-off from norwegian telecoms company telenor. its browser is used by an estimated 10 million people on a variety of operating systems and a number of different platforms.

Science_and_Techology

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

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gb quartet get cross country call four british athletes have been pre-selected to compete at the world cross country championships in march after impressive starts to the season. hayley yelling jo pavey karl keska and adam hickey will represent team gb at the event in france. yelling clinched the women s european cross country title last month and pavey followed up with bronze. keska helped the men s team to overall third place while hickey finished in 10th place on his junior debut. winning the european cross country title meant so much to me said yelling. and being pre-selected for the worlds means that i can focus on preparing in the best way possible. the 32-year-old will race alongside olympic 5 000m finalist pavey in the women s 8km race on 19 march. keska who has made a successful return from a long-term injury lay-off contests the men s 12km race on 20 march while 16-year-old hickey goes in the junior men s 8km on the same day. the rest of the team will be named after the trials at wollaton park in nottingham which take place on 5 march.

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

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media gadgets get moving pocket-sized devices that let people carry around video and images are set to have a big year in 2005 according to industry experts. last year saw the emergence of portable media players such as the windows-based creative zen portable media player the samsung yepp the iriver pmc-100 and the archos av400 series among others. but this year they are set to get smarter and more connected to allow people to find more video to watch on them. archos launched its latest range of its linux-based portable media devices at the consumer electronics show in las vegas on friday. dubbed the pocket media assistant pma430 it crucially has wi-fi capability built-in for the first time. consumers are showing a great thirst for devices that store all their media in one place for anywhere access said henri crohas chief of archos. and now those consumers can stay connected and productive at the same time. archos said the focus for the device is to be the second gadget in people s pockets after the mobile. unlike windows-based players the archos av400 series devices have always been able to record from any video source such as tvs as well as playback. the content put onto the devices is copy protected so cannot then be swapped to another device. recording is perhaps a crucial functionality for those who have not seen the point of portable video if there is not a lot of video to watch on it. and wi-fi connectivity opens up the possibility of content delivery via a high-speed wireless link. archos also announced that it would open up the software development kit to linux developers so that more applications could be created for the device. microsoft also made some announcements in the portable media arena at ces primarily for us consumers though. it has agreed a content deal with personal video recorder company tivo which bill gates also showcased in his keynote speech at ces. the tivo to go service means that us consumers will be able to take any programmes they record on their tivos and transfer it for free to watch on any of the windows-based portable media players or smartphones. it also said it had launched a service with mtv to let people watch comedy central vh1 and country music tv on its devices. and a service is launching with msn to provide people with shortened versions of news entertainment and other video on a subscription basis for download via the pc onto the portable devices. but the ability to record directly from tv vcr and digital cable and satellite boxes which windows-based devices do not offer certainly gives people more content to watch on the go too. the increased capability of these devices and the content deals that are being done may go some way to persuading people to use them. recent research by jupiter suggested that people would prefer a device that was dedicated to music. only 13% of europeans wanted to watch video while on the move. more seemed interested in spending their cash on music-only devices. this year we are ready for an explosion of portable media microsoft s mike coleman told the bbc news website. we are very bullish about it. the fact that i can put photos on here too and share them is super-cool to the consumer he added. the fact that europeans are far larger public transport users than americans is one reason why portable media will take off in the coming year too. there is a burgeoning market there for commuters to watch news and other programmes on their way to work. although microsoft s content distribution deals are for the us market at the moment talks were always on-going with european content suppliers to offer similar services. various rights management issues have to be ironed out first however. but that does not prevent people from finding ways to create their own content to share online and swap on portable devices particularly via those which are wi-fi enabled. the possibility is open for non-professional makers of video and audio to take advantage of the growing portable media market to distribute their work. ces which runs from 6 to 9 january showcases more than 50 000 new gadgets that will be hitting the shelves in 2005.

Science_and_Techology

bekele sets sights on world mark olympic 10 000m champion kenenisa bekele is determined to add the world indoor two mile record at february s norwich union grand prix in birmingham. the 22-year-old will again be chasing a record held by his compatriot and mentor haile gebrselassie who set the mark at the same meeting in 2003. i am still as hungry to do as much as i can in this sport said bekele. and aiming for the two mile world record in birmingham is the next of those targets. gebrselassie s current record stands at eight minutes 04.69 seconds. and bekele is no stranger to overhauling world marks at the national indoor arena. the ethiopian broke the world indoor 5 000m record on his debut at the meeting last year. compatriots mulugeta wondimu abiyote abate and markos geneti the world indoor bronze medallist over 3000m will race against bekele on 18 february. the meet has already attracted a crop of olympic talent. britain s 800m and 1500m champion kelly holmes is taking part in the 1000m. swedish heptathlon gold medallist carolina kluft will contest the 60m hurdles. while men s 4x100m relay gold medallists jason gardener and mark lewis-francis will go head-to-head in the 60m.

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tsunami to hit sri lanka banks sri lanka s banks face hard times following december s tsunami disaster officials have warned. the sri lanka banks association said the waves which killed more than 30 000 people also washed away huge amounts of property which was securing loans. according to its estimate as much as 13.6% of the loans made by private banks to clients in the disaster zone has been written off or damaged. state-owned lenders may be even worse hit it said. the association estimates that the private banking sector has 25bn rupees ($250m; £135m) of loans outstanding in the disaster zone. on one hand banks are dealing with the death of their customers along with damaged or destroyed collateral. on the other most are extending cheap loans for rebuilding and recovery as well as giving their clients more time to repay existing borrowing. the combination means a revenue shortfall during 2005 slba chairman - and commercial bank managing director - al gooneratne told a news conference. most banks have given moratoriums and will not be collecting interest at least in this quarter he said. in the public sector more than one in ten of the state-owned people s bank s customers in the south of sri lanka were affected a bank spokesman told reuters. he estimated the bank s loss at 3bn rupees.

Business

reboot ordered for eu patent law a european parliament committee has ordered a rewrite of the proposals for controversial new european union rules which govern computer-based inventions. the legal affairs committee (juri) said the commission should re-submit the computer implemented inventions directive after meps failed to back it. it has had vocal critics who say it could favour large over small firms and impact open-source software innovation. supporters say it would let firms protect their inventions. the directive is intended to offer patent protection to inventions that use software to achieve their effect in other words computer implemented invention . the draft law suffered setbacks when poland one of the largest eu member states rejected its adoption twice in two months. intense lobbying on the issue has started to gain momentum in some national parliaments putting them under immense pressure. only two meps backed the draft law at the juri meeting with one voting to abstain. opponents of the draft directive welcomed the decision and said a new first reading of the proposals would give the eu a chance to have fuller debates about its implications in all member states. in the us the patenting of computer programs and internet business methods is permitted. this means that the us-based amazon.com holds a patent for its one-click shopping service for example. critics are concerned that the directive could lead to a similar model happening in europe. this they fear could hurt small software developers because they do not have the legal and financial might of larger companies if they had to fight patent legal action in court. supporters say current laws are inefficient and it would serve to even up a playing field without bringing eu laws in line with the us.

Science_and_Techology

mcdonald s boss bell dies aged 44 charlie bell the straight-talking former head of fast-food giant mcdonald s has died of cancer aged 44. mr bell was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in may last year a month after taking over the top job. he resigned in november to fight the illness. joining the company as a 15-year-old part-time worker mr bell quickly moved through its ranks becoming australia s youngest store manager at 19. a popular go-getter he is credited with helping revive mcdonald s sales. mr bell leaves a wife and daughter. as we mourn his passing i ask you to keep charlie s family in your hearts and prayers chief executive james skinner said in a statement. and remember that in his abbreviated time on this earth charlie lived life to the fullest. no matter what cards life dealt charlie stayed centred on his love for his family and for mcdonald s. after running the company s australian business in the 1990s mr bell moved to the us in 1999 to run operations in asia africa and the middle east. in 2001 he took over the reins in europe mcdonald s second most important market. he became chief operating officer and president in 2002. mr bell took over as chief executive after his predecessor as ceo jim cantalupo died suddenly of a heart attack in april. having worked closely with mr cantalupo who came out of retirement to turn mcdonald s around mr bell focused on boosting demand at existing restaurants rather than follow a policy of rapid expansion. he had promised not to let the company get fat dumb and happy and according to reuters once told analysts that he would shove a fire hose down the throat of competitors if he saw them drowning. mr bell oversaw mcdonald s i m lovin it advertising campaign and introduced successes such as mccafe now the biggest coffee shop brand in australia and new zealand. colleagues said that mr bell was proud of his humble beginnings helping out behind cash tills and clearing tables when visiting restaurants.

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mirza makes indian tennis history teenager sania mirza completed a superb week at the hyderabad open by becoming the first indian in history to win a wta singles title. in front of a delirious home crowd the 18-year-old battled past alyona bondarenko of the ukraine 6-4 5-7 6-3. mirza ranked 134 in the world sunk to her knees in celebration after serving out the match against bondarenko. it is a big moment in my career and i would like to thank everyone who has been a part of my effort she said. this win has made me believe more in myself and i can now hope to do better in the coming days. i wanted to win this tournament very badly since it was in my hometown. at the australian open in january mirza became the first indian woman to reach the third round of a grand slam before losing to eventual champion serena williams. and a year ago she became the youngest indian to win a professional title by claiming the doubles at the hyderabad open. mirza playing in her first wta final began nervously in front of a raucous home crowd - committing three double faults in her opening service game. but from 0-2 down mirza broke serve twice in a row and held on to her advantage to take the first set. in a see-saw second set bondarenko raced into a 5-2 lead and though mirza hauled herself level the ukrainian broke again before finally levelling the match. mirza rediscovered the aggressive strokes that took her to the first set in the decider established a 5-2 lead. at 5-3 the stadium erupted in celebration when mirza thought she had delivered an ace to secure victory but the serve was ruled to have clipped the net. mirza eventually lost the point but to the relief of the crowd she broke bondarenko again in the next game to clinch the title.

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euro firms miss out on optimism more than 90% of large companies around the world are highly optimistic about their economic prospects a survey of 1 300 bosses suggests. their biggest worries are not terror threats but over-regulation low-cost competition and the wild ups and downs of oil prices. there is one exception: firms in western europe - but not the uk - are lacking confidence after years of slow growth. when business advisers pricewaterhousecoopers (pwc) conducted the same survey two years ago nearly 30% of bosses were gloomy about their prospects. global business leaders say that they are facing a two-pronged regulatory assault. after a string of corporate scandals in the united states - from enron to worldcom - the sarbanes-oxley act forces companies to be much more transparent but doing all the paperwork costs a lot of time and money. across europe meanwhile all stock exchange-listed companies are currently in the process of moving to new and complex accounting standards called ifrs. hacking through the red tape can hardly be avoided but many chief executives around the world appear to have decided on how to deal with low-cost competitors. already about 28% of the bosses polled for the survey say that they have moved parts of their business into low-wage countries and another 11% plan to do so in the future. possibly as a result the worry about low-cost competition has slightly fallen from last year with just 54% of companies calling it a significant threat or one of the biggest threats . but pwc s global chief executive samuel dipiazza said a growing number of companies were also concerned that moves to outsource work to cheaper countries could both hurt their reputation in their home markets and harm the quality of service they provide to their customers. according to frank brown global advisory leader at pwc the trend of large companies to have global operations has one clear upside: one risk in one region - for example the middle east - won t kill your business anymore. surprisingly the survey suggests that the rapid decline of the us dollar is not seen as a huge threat anymore unlike even a year ago when it was cited as the third-largest problem. mr dipiazza said the interviews with chief executives suggested that companies had adjusted to the new reality of a euro that buys $1.30 and more while others had successfully hedged their positions and locked in more favourable exchange rates. - for the survey pricewaterhousecoopers interviewed 1 324 chief executives throughout the world during the last three months of 2004.

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

Science_and_Techology

crossrail link to get go-ahead the £10bn crossrail transport plan backed by business groups is to get the go-ahead this month according to the mail on sunday. it says the uk treasury has allocated £7.5bn ($13.99bn) for the project and that talks with business groups on raising the rest will begin shortly. the much delayed crossrail link bill would provide for a fast cross-london rail link. the paper says it will go before the house of commons on 23 february. a second reading could follow on 16 or 17 march. we ve always said we are going to introduce a hybrid bill for crossrail in the spring and this remains the case the department for transport said on sunday. jeremy de souza a spokesman for crossrail said on sunday he could not confirm whether the treasury was planning to invest £7.5bn or when the bill would go before parliament. however he said some impetus may have been provided by the proximity of an election. the new line would go out as far as maidenhead berkshire to the west of london and link heathrow to canary wharf via the city. heathrow to the city would take 40 minutes dramatically cutting journey times for business travellers and reducing overcrowding on the tube. the line has the support of the mayor of london ken livingstone business groups and the government but there have been three years of arguments over how it should be funded. the mail on sunday s financial mail said the £7.5bn of treasury money was earmarked for spending in £2.5bn instalments in 2010 2011 and 2012.

Business

lennon brands rangers favourites celtic s neil lennon admits rangers could be considered slight favourites for the old firm cis cup clash but insists his side can still win. lennon concedes rangers are in good form at the moment but they have failed to beat celtic in their last seven meetings. rangers are on the up and have been on a good run in recent weeks he said. but it s a game we believe we re capable of winning if we play our best he told the evening times. all the boys are looking forward to it because they are brilliant games to be involved in. without playing at the top of our game we have still been winning matches. at the minute we are at the top of the league and still in with a chance of staying in europe so i don t think it is the crisis people have been trying to make out. of course it is a concern when you are losing goals because we have been notorious for being a team that is hard to beat and keeping clean sheets but hopefully we are over that wee run. considering we lost henrik larsson at the end of last season we have still been scoring a lot of goals which is pleasing.

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britons growing digitally obese gadget lovers are so hungry for digital data many are carrying the equivalent of 10 trucks full of paper in weight . music images e-mails and texts are being hoarded on mobiles cameras laptops and pdas (personal digital assistants) a toshiba study found. it found that more than 60% kept 1 000 to 2 000 music files on their devices making the uk digitally fat . virtual weight measurements are based on research by california institute of technology professor roy williams. he calculated physical comparisons for digital data in the mid-1990s. he worked out that one gigabyte (1 000 000 000 bytes) was the equivalent of a pick-up truck filled with paper. the amount of data people are squirreling away on their gadgets is clearly a sign that people are finding more things to do with their shiny things. if digital hoarding habits continue on this scale people could be carrying around a digitally obese 20 gigabytes by next year. britain has become a nation of information hoarders with a ferocious appetite for data said martin larsson general manager of toshiba s european storage device division. as storage capabilities increase and the features and functionalities of mobile devices expand to support movie files and entire libraries of multi-media content we will all become virtually obese he told the bbc news website. the survey reflects the increasing trend for portable devices with built-in hard drives like music and media players from apple creative labs archos iriver and others. this trend is set to grow according to analysts. they suggest the number of hard drives in consumer electronics gadgets could grow from 17 million last year to 55 million in 2006. consumers are driving the move towards smaller devices that have greater functionality and industry is trying to keep up said mr larsson. people are looking for more than just phone calls and text messages on the move they want things like web browsing e-mailing music photos and more. many are finding memory keys and memory sticks are simply not big enough to hold everything. floppies and memory keys have their place but they don t have anything like the capacity or flexibility of a hard drive so are unable to meet the demand for more and more storage capacity in consumer devices said mr larsson. the cost of making hard drives has dropped and is continuing to do so because of improved technologies so they are proving to be more cost-effective than other forms of memory he added. the amount of data that can be stored has grown by 400% in the last three years while the cost for every gigabyte has fallen by 80%. it is also getting easier to transfer files from one device to another which has traditionally been a slow and problematic area. transfer of data between different memory types has improved significantly in recent times and will be further helped by the standards for hard drives which are currently being developed by the major manufacturers said mr larsson. according to technology analysts idc a fifth of all hard drives produced will be used in consumer electronics by 2007.

Science_and_Techology

mobiles not media players yet mobiles are not yet ready to be all-singing all-dancing multimedia devices which will replace portable media players say two reports. despite moves to bring music download services to mobiles people do not want to trade multimedia services with size and battery life said jupiter. a separate study by gartner has also said real-time tv broadcasts to mobiles is unlikely in europe until 2007. technical issues and standards must be resolved first said the report. batteries already have to cope with other services that operators offer like video playback video messaging megapixel cameras and games amongst others. bringing music download services based on the success of computer-based download services will put more demands on battery life. fifty percent of europeans said the size of a mobile was the most important factor when it came to choosing their phone but more power demands tend to mean larger handsets. mobile phone music services must not be positioned to compete with the pc music experience as the handsets are not yet ready said thomas husson mobile analyst at jupiter research. mobile music services should be new and different and enable operators to differentiate their brands and support third generation network launches. other problems facing mobile music include limited storage on phones compared to portable players which can hold up to 40gb of music. the mobile industry is keen to get into music downloading after the success of apple s itunes napster and other net music download services. with phones getting smarter and more powerful there are also demands to be able to watch tv on the move. in the us services like tivo to go let people transfer pre-recorded tv content onto their phones. but the gartner report on mobile tv broadcasting in europe suggests direct broadcasting will have to wait. currently tv-like services where clips are downloaded are offered by several european operators like italy s tim and 3. mobile tv will have to overcome several barriers before it is widely taken up though said the report. various standards and ways of getting tv signals to mobiles are being worked on globally. in europe trials in berlin and helsinki are making use of terrestrial tv masts to broadcast compressed signals to handsets with extra receivers. a service from the norwegian broadcasting corporation lets people watch tv programmes on their mobiles 24 hours a day. the service uses 3gp technology one of the standards for mobile tv. but at the end of 2004 the european telecommunications institute (etsi) formally adopted digital video broadcasting handheld (dvb-h) as the mobile tv broadcasting standard for europe. operators will be working on the standard as a way to bring real-time broadcasts to mobiles as well as trying to overcome several other barriers. the cost and infrastructure needs to set up the services will need to be addressed. handsets also need to be able to work with the dvb-h standard. tv services will have to live up to the expectations of the digital tv generation too which expects good quality images at low prices according to analysts. people are also likely to be put off watching tv on such small screens said gartner. digital video recorders like europe s sky+ box and video-on-demand services mean people have much more control over what tv they watch. as a result people may see broadcasting straight to mobiles as taking away that control. more powerful smartphones like the xda ii nokia 6600 sonyericsson p900 and the orange e200 offering web access text and multimedia messaging e-mail calendar and gaming are becoming increasingly common. a report by analysts instat/mdr has predicted that smartphone shipments will grow by 44% over the next five years. it says that smartphones will make up 117 million out of 833 million handsets shipped globally by 2009.

Science_and_Techology

hong kong in 2011 world cup bid hong kong is hoping to join japan as co-host of the 2011 rugby world cup. japan has applied to host the tournament on its own with the aim of taking it outside rugby s traditional strongholds for the first time. but hong kong rugby football union (hkrfu) chairman john molloy has called for the territory to host one of the pools and a quarter-final. the japanese rugby football union (jrfu) says it has yet to receive a formal presentation from the hkrfu. at this stage we are only considering hosting the event by ourselves said jrfu secretary koji tokumasu. we cannot examine any proposal unless we get it in a definitive form. japan faces stiff competition in the form of south africa and new zealand to host the event in seven years time. until now the world cup has been held in countries from the six nations or tri-nations said tokumasu. we think and the irb thinks that it is time for rugby to go global. japan is ready to host the tournament and we are looking forward to welcoming the world of rugby to japan. tokumasu added that the 2002 football world cup co-hosted by japan and south korea had been a huge success. as well as having the infrastructure in place japan also has the commercial clout to host one of sport s top competitions he said. last year japan launched its first professional rugby league and it has the fourth largest number of registered players (125 508) in the world after england south africa and france.

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ferguson puts faith in youngsters manchester united manager sir alex ferguson said he has no regrets after his second-string side lost 3-0 away at fenerbahce in the champions league. ferguson said: the good thing about being manager is that you are in control of which team to pick. i care about united that s important so while i am disappointed at the result i am not at the team i selected. this game was important for the young lads. they will remember it and next time they come they will be better. ferguson admitted his side were well-beaten by the turks a result which meant they finished second in group d behind lyon. he added: they ll know not to play like that again. we showed a lack of strength. but i have no complaints about the scoreline. in the second half we had some good moments in attack. and in that situation you have to take one chance. but we didn t do that so the game just petered out for us. i didn t think it made much difference whether we won the group or finished second and i still don t. we could get inter ac milan and juventus but bayern barcelona and real madrid were among the runners-up. all we can do is let fate decide how it works out.

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premier league planning cole date the premier league is attempting to find a mutually convenient date to investigate allegations chelsea made an illegal approach for ashley cole. both chelsea and arsenal will be asked to give evidence to a premier league commission but no deadline has been put on when that meeting will convene. it s hard to put a date on it a premier league spokesman confirmed to bbc sport. it s not a formal situation where they ve got so much time to respond. arsenal and england defender cole reportedly met blues boss jose mourinho and chief executive peter kenyon in a london hotel 11 days ago. chelsea have yet to officially confirm or deny the meeting which would be in breach of premier league rule k3. now the gunners have asked for an inquiry to look into claims that their player has been tapped up . both clubs have pledged to co-operate with the inquiry which will be conducted on a single day as opposed to being run as an ongoing evaluation. cole is in negotiations with the gunners over extending his current deal which ends in 2007. and his arsenal team-mate robert pires has urged the england left-back to stay at highbury. pires told the evening standard: he has been at arsenal for ever. he is a very attacking left-back and i think he is enjoying his football because at arsenal he plays in an offensive team. i am not sure he will get the same pleasure at chelsea even though they are doing so well at the moment. i have built a fantastic playing relationship with ashley. we play together so well - we could do it with our eyes shut. but you have to respect the decision of the player. everybody has that right.

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jp morgan admits us slavery links thousands of slaves were accepted as collateral for loans by two banks that later became part of jp morgan chase. the admission is part of an apology sent to jp morgan staff after the bank researched its links to slavery in order to meet legislation in chicago. citizens bank and canal bank are the two lenders that were identified. they are now closed but were linked to bank one which jp morgan bought last year. about 13 000 slaves were used as loan collateral between 1831 and 1865. because of defaults by plantation owners citizens and canal ended up owning about 1 250 slaves. we all know slavery existed in our country but it is quite different to see how our history and the institution of slavery were intertwined jp morgan chief executive william harrison and chief operating officer james dimon said in the letter. slavery was tragically ingrained in american society but that is no excuse. we apologise to the african-american community particularly those who are descendants of slaves and to the rest of the american public for the role that citizens bank and canal bank played. the slavery era was a tragic time in us history and in our company s history. jp morgan said that it was setting up a $5m scholarship programme for students living in louisiana the state where the events took place. the bank said that it is a very different company than the citizens and canal banks of the 1800s .

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

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seamen sail into biometric future the luxury cruise liner crystal harmony currently in the gulf of mexico is the unlikely setting for tests of biometric technology. as holidaymakers enjoy balmy breezes their ship s crew is testing prototype versions of the world s first internationally issued biometric id cards the seafarer s equivalent of a passport. along with the owner s picture name and personal details the new seafarers identity document incorporates a barcode representing unique features of its holder s fingerprints. the cards are due to be issued in february next year in line with the revised un convention on seafarers identity documents of june 2003. tests currently under way in the caribbean are designed to ensure that new cards and their machine readers produced by different companies in different countries are working to interoperable standards. results of the current tests which involve seafarers from a wide range of occupations and nationalities will be published by the international labour organisation (ilo) by the end of november. crystal cruises which operates the crystal harmony is exploring the use of biometrics but has not yet committed to the technology. authenti-corp the us technology consultancy has been working with the ilo on its technical specifications for the cards. if you re issued a seafarer s id in your country you want to be sure that when the ship lands in a port in say my country you can validate yourself using whatever equipment we have installed authenti-corp s ceo cynthia musselman told the bbc s go digital programme. she said french jordanian and nigerian nationals would be the first seafarers to get the new id cards since their countries have already ratified the convention. it aims to combat international terrorism whilst guaranteeing the welfare the one million seafarers estimated to be at sea. the convention highlights the importance of access to shore facilities and shore leave as vital elements to a sailor s wellbeing and therefore it says to safer shipping and cleaner oceans. by increasing security on the seas as well as border control and protection the cards will hopefully reduce the number of piracy problems around the world said ms musselman. it should be a safer environment for seafarers to work in and will allow people protecting their borders to have confidence that the people getting off the ship are in fact seafarers.

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wales make two changes for france wales coach mike ruddock has made two changes from the team that beat italy 38-8 for saturday s trip to france. kevin morgan takes over from his injured newport-gwent dragons colleague hal luscombe on the right wing. and in the pack neath-swansea ospreys forward ryan jones is preferred at blindside flanker to jonathan thomas. thomas a try-scorer in rome drops down to the bench instead of ian gough while cardiff back rhys williams steps up in place of morgan. luscombe is sidelined by a hamstring problem sustained during the six nations game against italy last weekend. however the experienced and in-form morgan was already pushing hard for a start at stade de france. due to his impressive performances from the bench kevin was very much in the selection mix anyway and the unfortunate injury to hal gives him the chance to start said ruddock. now that ryan jones has recovered from injury we have increased the options in the back row. jonathan thomas is unlucky to lose his spot after performing well against italy and scoring a try but such is the competition for places that every position is debated in detail. for this particular game we felt we might not always be afforded the open spaces out wide we were able to exploit against italy so an extra big ball-carrier in the back-row is thought to be necessary on this occasion. obviously it s a 22-man game these days and there is every chance that jonathan will be making an impact from the bench. wales have beaten france on two of their last three visits to paris and another victory this time around would keep them firmly on course for a first five or six nations title triumph since 1994. graham henry (former wales coach) said a couple of years ago that we should be bold when going to france and he was proved right said ruddock. that is a great way to approach the game and something we will further endorse with the players this week. g thomas (toulouse capt); k morgan (newport-gwent) t shanklin (cardiff) g henson (neath-swansea) s williams (neath-swansea); s jones (clermont auvergne) d peel (llanelli); g jenkins (cardiff) m davies (gloucester) a jones; (neath-swansea) b cockbain (neath-swansea) r sidoli (cardiff); r jones (neath-swansea) m williams (cardiff) m owen (newport-gwent). replacements: r mcbryde (llanelli) j yapp (cardiff) j thomas (neath-swansea) r sowden-taylor (cardiff) g cooper (newport-gwent) c sweeney newport-gwent) r williams (cardiff).

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celtic unhappy over bulgaria date martin o neill hopes to block stilian petrov s call-up by bulgaria during celtic s busy festive programme. the celtic manager does not view the friendly against valenciana - a region of spain - on 28 december as important. i can t say i was overly pleased at the fixture being played just after christmas said o neill. we will have to speak with the bulgarian fa. it s their prerogative for them to arrange a fixture and our prerogative how we handle it. bulgaria s game comes between celtic s boxing day meeting with hearts and their 2 january fixture against livingston. o neill believes the extra game will not help a midfielder whose season has already been affected by injury. they have organised a game at a rather awkward time he added. when we were out playing barcelona i spoke with the bulgarian manager hristo stoichkov and he mentioned this game to me. we pay his wages we are the ones that if an awkward fixture is going to be played at some stage or another it should be to our benefit rather than anyone else. i have said this before but bulgaria are the one nation who seem to organise a lot of friendly games.

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us economy shows solid gdp growth the us economy has grown more than expected expanding at an annual rate of 3.8% in the last quarter of 2004. the gross domestic product figure was ahead of the 3.1% the government estimated a month ago. the rise reflects stronger spending by businesses on capital equipment and a smaller-than-expected trade deficit. gdp is a measure of a country s economic health reflecting the value of the goods and services it produces. the new gdp figure announced by the commerce department on friday also topped the 3.5% growth rate that economists had forecast ahead of friday s announcement. growth was at an annual rate of 4% in the third quarter of 2004 and for the year it came in at 4.4% the best figure in five years. however the positive economic climate may lead to a rise in interest rates with many expecting us rates to rise on 22 march. in the january-to-march quarter the economy is expected to grow at an annual rate of about 4% economists forecast. in the final quarter of 2004 businesses increased spending on capital equipment and software by 18% up from 17.5% in the third quarter. consumer spending grew 4.2% in the final quarter down from the third quarter s 5.1%.

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

Science_and_Techology

stuart joins norwich from addicks norwich have signed charlton midfielder graham stuart until the end of the season for an undisclosed fee. it was a very easy decision to make the 34-year-old told norwich s website. the attraction for me was to continue to play in the premiership. canaries boss nigel worthington added: i m delighted that graham will be joining us until the end of the season. he s gives us a wealth of experience. hopefully he can be part of keeping us in the premier league. stuart has extensive top-flight experience with everton chelsea and charlton and can play across the midfield positions. he joins norwich with the norfolk club second-from-bottom in the premiership but stuart is confident that the carrow road outfit have a bright future. i ve been very impressed with the facilities here. it s obviously a very well run football club with excellent facilities and i ve always enjoyed playing at carrow road he added. it s a nice compact ground with a good atmosphere and hopefully i can help give the fans something else to cheer. stuart a former england under-21 international made 110 appearances for chelsea scoring 18 goals before joining everton. he won the fa cup with the toffees in 1995 and remains a hero at goodison park after his 81st-minute winner against wimbledon saved everton from relegation in 1994. stuart spent just over four years at goodison park making 125 senior appearances and scoring 25 goals before signing for sheffield united - where he scored 12 goals in 68 appearances. after signing for charlton he made 164 appearances scoring 23 times but recently he has been battling a back problem and had not played for the londoners for three months before heading to norwich.

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why few targets are better than many the economic targets set out at the lisbon summit of european union leaders in 2000 were meant to help europe leapfrog its way past the united states to become the world s leading economy by 2010. but the lisbon targets are about much more than just economic prestige. for many economists and analysts they are about ensuring europe doesn t become a global economic laggard. they are also about ensuring europe can continue to compete as an equal with the growing economic giants of asia india and china as well as with the economic might of the united states. that s why there was a tone of urgency in the report out on wednesday by the former dutch prime minister wim kok. mr kok was commissioned by the european commission in march this year to assess how far the eu has come towards meeting the lisbon targets five years on from their inception. his conclusion was simple: too many of the targets will be seriously missed. lisbon risks becoming a synonym for missed objectives and failed promises his report said. the status quo is not an option. at risk in the medium to long run is nothing less than the sustainability of the society europe has built it said. the report comes at a time when europe s competitive position is waning. the eu s economic growth rate is projected to be 2% this year and 2.4% next. while there has been growth in overall employment rates in europe productivity lags behind that of the us. but meeting the lisbon targets requires a political commitment that no eu member state has volunteered so far. that has in part been due to the state of the global economy in the past few years. as mr kok s report noted: the ink had scarcely dried on the [lisbon] agreement before the worldwide stock market bubble imploded. the us suffered two years of economic slowdown and recession and the european economy followed suit. the circumstances weren t conducive to creating the 20 million new jobs promised by eu leaders in lisbon in 2000. neither were they conducive to getting governments to spend more on research and development money needed if the eu was to meet its target of becoming a so-called knowledge-based economy . the [lisbon] vision is a compelling one but in order to do it society has to change said paul hofheinz of the lisbon council a brussels-based citizen action group. what you find is that a lot of people have been fighting change. you find trade unions fighting change. but also the employers associations. even though they tell you they re in favour of change many are actually pushing for less competition more subsidy and less free market activity. but part of the problem was also linked to the original targets set out in lisbon five years ago. targets have a habit of coming back to haunt you and in the lisbon case they covered too much according to the wim report. economic growth and job creation were linked to issues ranging from environmental protection to social inclusion and even safety at sea. the agenda was just too broad and as a result nothing was prioritised. lisbon is about everything and thus about nothing the kok report said. everybody is responsible and thus no one. that s why the kok report recommends that the lisbon targets be narrowed down to 14 key indicators with an emphasis on creating jobs and economic growth. it also recommends that the european commission draw up a league table which ranks countries according to the steps they re taking towards meeting the targets effectively naming shaming and faming . rhetoric and delivery don t necessarily go hand in hand mr kok said in a press conference alongside the publication of his report. we don t have the luxury anymore just to exchange politeness with one another. on one point mr kok was very clear: the european union should not try to emulate the us economy. the european economic and social model needs to change but not so much so that social and environmental issues take a backseat to economic growth. in that sense the lisbon agenda is sailing into unchartered waters. the kok report tries to do away with a belief that jobs need to be sacrificed at the altar of economic growth. it s very ambitious said john palmer political director at the european policy centre a brussels-based think-tank. this is something that no advanced economy in the world has tried to do. it s going to require quite new and innovative policies. but some analysts believe that the kok report doesn t come up with the sort of innovative policies and thinking needed to make the lisbon targets a reality. for example it recommends putting in place policies which encourage women and older people to remain in the workforce. but it doesn t say how companies should be convinced to do this. it will be up to the incoming president of the european commission jose manuel barroso to adopt mr kok s recommendations and press them on eu governments. mr barroso has said that the eu s competitiveness will be his top priority. he expects his five-year term in office to be judged on europe s success in meeting the lisbon agenda.

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