text
stringlengths 501
25.5k
| category
stringclasses 6
values | label
int64 0
2
|
|---|---|---|
howard truanted to play snooker conservative leader michael howard has admitted he used to play truant to spend time with his school friends at a snooker hall. mr howard said his time at jack s snooker hall in llanelli in the 1950s had not done him any lasting damage . but he told the times educational supplement that truancy was very bad and said firm action was needed. mr howard also called for a return to o-levels and more classroom discipline. mr howard eventually left llanelli grammar school - and the snooker hall - to go to cambridge university. he said: i don t think it s done me any lasting damage. nor has it made me a snooker world champion. there might have been some occasions when we left early of an afternoon. i m just being honest. i think truancy is a very bad thing and that firm action should be taken to deal with it. another player who has failed to win snooker s world championship - jimmy the whirlwind white - has previously admitted missing lessons instead spending his days in smoky halls. tony meo [another player] and me used to spend all of our spare time there mr white said we loved the game and the atmosphere. school went out of the window. i went for a while and then started taking time off. mr howard s fellow welshman ray reardon - known by his fellow professionals as dracula - won the snooker world championship six times having left school at 14 to work as a miner. and terry griffiths like mr howard from llanelli won the tournament in 1979. it is not known whether the two of them ever clashed cues at jack s. | business | 2 |
prodigy monfils blows away gaudio french prodigy gael monfils underlined his huge promise by beating french open champion gaston gaudio 6-4 7-6 (7-4) in the first round of the qatar open. the 18-year-old wild card won three of the four junior grand slam events last year including wimbledon. fabrice santoro the 2000 champion beat sweden s thomas johansson 6-4 6-2 but fourth seed mikhail youzhny lost 6-3 7-6 (7-3) to rafael nadal. roger federer plays greg rusedski in the second round on wednesday. monfils who was given a wildcard into the tournament said: this is my first win over a top 10 player and i am delighted. i play my best tennis when i am fired up on the court and the reason i won today was because i was able to play my natural attacking game he said. of course i was a bit tired in the second set. but i was confident i could survive had there been a third set. | sports | 0 |
everton s weir cools euro hopes everton defender david weir has played down talk of european football despite his team lying in second place in the premiership after beating liverpool. weir told bbc radio five live: we don t want to rest on our laurels and say we have achieved anything yet. i think you start taking your eye off the ball if you make statements and look too far into the future. if you start making predictions you soon fall back into trouble. the only thing that matters is the next game. he said: we are looking after each other and hard work goes a long way in this league. we have definitely shown that. also injuries and suspensions haven t cost us too badly and we have a lot of self-belief around the place. | world | 2 |
radcliffe eyes hard line on drugs paula radcliffe has called for all athletes found guilty on drugs charges to be treated as criminals. the marathon world record holder believes more needs to be done to rid athletics of the suspicions and innuendoes which greet any fast time. doping in sport is a criminal offence and should be treated as such the 30-year-old told the sunday times. it not only cheats other athletes but also cheats promoters sponsors and the general public. radcliffe s comments come at a time when several american sports stars are under suspicion of steroid use. being caught in possession of a performance-enhancing drugs should carry a penalty she added. the current system does not detect many of the substances being abused by athletes. this means that often athletes do not know if they are competing on a level playing field if their hard work and sacrifice is being trumped by an easier scientific route. often when an athlete puts in a good performance they are subjected to suspicions and innuendoes instead of praise. having been on the receiving end of accusations like this i can testify as to how much this hurts. | sports | 0 |
yukos heading back to us courts russian oil and gas company yukos is due in a us court on thursday as it continues to fight for its survival. the firm is in the process of being broken up by russian authorities in order to pay a $27bn (£14bn) tax bill. yukos filed for bankruptcy in the us hoping to use international business law to halt the forced sale of its key oil production unit yuganskneftegas. the unit was however sold for $9.4bn to state oil firm rosneft but only after the state auction had been disrupted. yukos lawyers now say the auction violated us bankruptcy law. the company and its main shareholders have vowed to go after any company that buys its assets using all and every legal means. the company wants damages of $20bn claiming yuganskneftegas was sold at less than market value. judge letitia clark will hear different motions including one from deutsche bank to throw out the chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. the german lender is one of six banks that were barred from providing financing to gazprom the russian state-owned company that was expected to win the auction for yuganskneftegas. deutsche bank which is also an advisor to gazprom has called on the us court to overturn its decision to provide yukos with bankruptcy protection. lifting the injunction would remove the uncertainty that surrounds the court case and clarify deutsche bank s business position analysts said. analysts are not optimistic about yukos chances in court. russian president vladimir putin and the country s legal authorities have repeatedly said that the us has no jurisdiction over yukos and its legal wranglings. on top of that the firm only has limited assets in the us. yukos has won small victories however and is bullish about its chances in court. do we have an ability to influence what happens we think we do said mike lake a yukos spokesman. the litigation risks are real said credit suisse first boston analyst vadim mitroshin the dispute with the russian authorities is partly driven by president putin s clampdown on the political ambitions of ex-yukos boss mikhail khodorkovsky. mr khodorkovsky is in jail on charges of fraud and tax evasion. | science and tech | 2 |
domain system scam fear a system to make it easier to create website addresses using alphabets like cyrillic could open a back door for scammers a trade body has warned. the internationalised domain names system has been a work in progress for years and has recently been approved by the internet electronic task force. but the uk internet forum (ukif) is concerned that the system will let scammers create fake sites more easily. the problem lies in the computer codes used to represent language. registering names that look like that of legitimate companies but lead users to fake sites designed to steal passwords and credit card details could become a whole lot easier for determined scammers says stephen dyer director of ukif. domain names are the real language addresses of websites rather than their internet protocol address which is a series of numbers. they are used so people can more easily navigate the web. so-called ascii codes are used to represent european languages but for other languages a hybrid of a system called unicode is used. so for example website paypal could now be coded using a mixture of the latin alphabet and the russian alphabet. the resulting domain as displayed to the users would look identical to the real site as a russian a look just like an english a . but the computer code would be different and the site it would lead users to could be a fake. this is more than just a theory. a fake paypal.com has already been registered with net domain giant verisign by someone who has followed the debate around the internationalised domain name (idn) system said mr dyer. as the idea was to prove a point rather than be malicious the fake domain has now been handed back to paypal but it sets a worrying precedent mr dyer said. although the idn problem is well known in technical circles the commercial world is totally unaware how easily their websites can be faked said mr dyer. it is important to alert users that there is a new and invisible and almost undetectable way of diverting them to what looks like a perfectly genuine site he added. there are solutions. for instance browsers could spot domains that use mixed characters and display them in different colours as a warning to users. mr dyer acknowledged that it would be a huge undertaking to update all the world s browsers. another solution to introduce idn-disabled browsers could be a case of throwing out the baby with the bath water he said. centr the council of european national top level domain registries agrees. a rush to introduce idn-disabled browsers into the marketplace is an overly-zealous step that will harm public confidence in idns - a technology that is desperately needed in the non-english speaking world the organisation said in a statement. | science and tech | 0 |
moore questions captaincy brian moore believes the england captain should not be a full-back. jason robinson has led the team during their opening three defeats in the six nations tournament in the absence of fly-half jonny wilkinson. the world champions have struggled since the retirement of former captain martin johnson a lock forward. and former england captain moore told the bbc: full-backs are too far away from the action. that s not a reflection on robinson personally. he added: i just think the point of influence needs to move closer to the pack - which is after all where games usually start and finish. moore says a lack of cohesion in the forwards is one of the reasons why england have lost against wales france and ireland in this year s tournament. assertiveness in the pack isn t there we re not getting enough people into the breakdowns he explained. wer e not getting quick ball which means the backs are being stifled. their creativity depends on quick ball and we re not getting that. with injuries depriving him of key players like wilkinson coach andy robinson has given youngsters such as harry ellis and jamie noon a chance. and moore believes the last two games against italy and scotland are a good opportunity to experiment further. the problem is the players that are around to replace the icons which have been lost because of retirement and injury don t have the requisite experience moore added. you can t do anything about that but play them. there are players who have been knocking on the door it s time for them to be looked at in these last two games because there s nothing on them. we then go into next season with a greater certainty of who can and cannot handle the pressure of international rugby. | science and tech | 2 |
senior fannie mae bosses resign the two most senior executives at us mortgage giant fannie mae have resigned after accounting irregularities were uncovered at the company. chief executive franklin raines a former senior official in the clinton administration and chief financial officer tim howard have left the firm. fannie mae was criticised by financial regulators and could have to restate its earnings by up to $9bn (£4.6bn). it is america s second largest financial institution. recent investigations have exposed extensive accounting errors at fannie mae which supplies funds to america s $8 trillion mortgage market. last week the firm was admonished by the securities and exchange commission which said it had made major errors in its financial reporting. the financial regulator said fannie mae would have to raise substantial new capital to restore its balance sheet. analysts said the sec s criticism made it impossible for fannie mae s senior executives to remain. mr raines head of the office of management and budget under president clinton has taken early retirement while mr howard has also stepped down the company said on tuesday. kpmg fannie mae s independent auditor will also be replaced. by my early retirement i have held myself accountable mr raines said in a statement. fannie mae was found to have violated accounting rules relating to derivatives - financial instruments used to hedge against fluctuations in interest rates - and some pre-paid loans. as a result it could be forced to restate $9bn in earnings over the past four years effectively wiping out a third of the company s profits since 2001. although not making loans directly to buyers fannie mae is the largest single player in the mortgage market underwriting half of all us house purchases. the firm operates under charter from the us congress. it has faced stinging criticism from congressional leaders who held hearings into its finances earlier this year and from government regulator the office of federal housing enterprise oversight (ofheo). we are encouraged that the board s announcement signals a new culture and a new direction for fannie mae armando falcon ofheo director said. the problems afflicting fannie mae are just the latest to hit the us mortgage industry. freddie mac the country s other largest mortgage firm was forced to restate its earnings by $4.4bn last year and pay a $125m fine after an investigation of its books. | world | 2 |
blair labour s longest-serving pm tony blair has become the labour party s longest-serving prime minister. the 51-year-old premier has marked his 2 838th day in the post overtaking the combined length of harold wilson s two terms during the 1960s and 1970s. if mr blair wins the next election and fulfils his promise to serve a full third term he will surpass margaret thatcher s 11 years by the end of 2008. in 1997 mr blair became the youngest premier of the 20th century when he came to power at the age of 43. the last prime minister to be installed at a younger age was lord liverpool who was a year his junior in 1812. mr blair s other political firsts include becoming the first labour leader to win two successive full terms in power after the 2001 labour landslide. and the birth of the blairs fourth child leo on 20 may 2000 was the first child born to a serving prime minister in more than 150 years. the last downing street dad was lord john russell in 1848. labour won a huge majority of 167 over the conservatives in 2001 but mr blair has since been criticised by many in his own party. the war in iraq and reforms of the health service and education system have provoked dissent from backbenchers. gordon brown chancellor of the exchequer under mr blair became britain s longest-serving chancellor of modern times in 2004. former labour leader lord kinnock said the chancellor would be best placed to take over from mr blair. when asked about the future leadership of the party he told itv wales waterfront programme: that contest is a long way away and it will occur only when the prime minister tony blair decides he s subscribed all he can and then wants to go. i think that the main contender will be gordon brown who is a man of virtually unmatched capability and now great experience. both mr brown and mr blair rose to prominence when lord kinnock led labour between 1983 and 1992. | business | 2 |
record year for chilean copper chile s copper industry has registered record earnings of $14.2bn in 2004 the governmental chilean copper commission (cochilco) has reported. strong demand from china s fast-growing economy and high prices have fuelled production said cochilco vice president patricio cartagena. he added that the boom has allowed the government to collect $950m in taxes. mr cartagena said the industry expects to see investment worth $10bn over the next three years. with these investments clearly we are going to continue being the principle actor in the mining of copper. it s a consolidation of the industry with new projects and expansions that will support greater production. australia s bhp billiton - which operates la escondida the world s largest open pit copper mine - is planning to invest $1.9bn between now and 2007 while state-owned codelco will spend about $1bn on various projects. chile the biggest copper producer in the world is now analyzing ways of to keep prices stable at their current high levels without killing off demand or leading customers to look for substitutes for copper. the copper price reached a 16-year high in october 2004. production in chile is expected rise 3.5% in 2005 to 5.5 million tonnes said mr cartagena. cochilco expects for 2005 a slight reduction on copper prices and forecasts export earnings will fall 10.7%. | business | 0 |
blogs take on the mainstream web logs or blogs are everywhere with at least an estimated five million on the web and that number is set to grow. these online diaries come in many shapes and styles ranging from people willing to sharing their views pictures and links to companies interested in another way of reaching their customers. but this year the focus has been on blogs which cast a critical eye over news events often writing about issues ignored by the big media or offering an eye-witness account of events. most blogs may have only a small readership but communication experts say they have provided an avenue for people to have a say in the world of politics. the most well-known examples include iraqi salam pax s accounts of the us-led war former iranian vice-president mohammad ali abtahi exclusive insight into the islamic republic s government and the highs and lows of the recent us election campaign. there are already websites pulling together these first-hand reporting accounts heralded by blogs like wikinews.com launched last november. the blogging movement has been building up for many years. andrew nachison director of the media center a us-based think-tank that studies media technology and society highlights the us presidential race as a possible turning point for blogs. you could look at that as a moment when audiences exercised a new form of power to choose among many more sources of information than they have never had before he says. and blogs were a key part of that transformation. among them were blogs carrying picture messages saying we are sorry for george w bush s victory and the responses from his supporters. mr nachison argues blogs have become independent sources for images and ideas that circumvent traditional sources of news and information such as newspapers tv and radio. we have to acknowledge that in all of these cases mainstream media actually plays a role in the discussion and the distribution of these ideas he told the bbc news website. but they followed the story they didn t lead it. some parts of the so-called traditional media have expressed concerns about this emerging competitor raising questions about the journalistic value of blogs. others like the french newspaper le monde have applied a different strategy offering blogs as part of its content. i don t think the mission and role of journalism is threatened. it is in transition as society itself is in transition says mr nachison. however he agrees with other experts like the linguist and political analyst noam chomsky that mainstream media has lost the traditional role of news gatekeeper. the one-to-many road of traditional journalism yes it is threatened. and professional journalists need to acclimate themselves to an environment in which there are many more contributors to the discourse says mr nachison. the notion of a gatekeeper who filters and decides what s acceptable for public consumption and what isn t that s gone forever. with people now walking around with information devices in their pockets like camera or video phones we are going to see more instances of ordinary citizens breaking stories. it seems unlikely that we will end up living in a planet where every human is a blogger. but the current number of blogs is likely to keep on growing in a web already overloaded with information. blog analysis firm technorati estimates the number of blogs in existence the so-called blogosphere has already exceeded five million and is growing at exponential levels. tools such as google s blogger movabletype and the recently launched beta version of msn spaces are making it easier to run a blog. us research think-tank pew internet & american life says a blog is created every 5.8 seconds although less than 40% of the total are updated at least once every two months. but experts agree that the phenomenon allowing individuals to publish share ideas exchange information comment on current issues post images or video on the web easily is here to stay. we are entering one era in which the technological infrastructure is creating a different context for how we tell our stories and how we communicate with each other said mr nachison. and there s going to be bad that comes with the good. | world | 2 |
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. | sports | 2 |
dirty den s demise seen by 14m more than 14 million people saw dirty den watts killed off on friday marking eastenders 20th anniversary according to unofficial figures. den s death came 16 years after he was supposedly shot in 1989. but he came back to the show in september 2003. the audience for bbc one s one-hour special averaged 13.7 million and peaked at 14.2 million in the last 15 minutes overnight figures showed. den died after being confronted by zoe chrissie and sam in the queen vic. if the ratings are confirmed the episode will have given the soap its highest audience for a year. the overnight figures showed almost 60% of the viewing public tuned into eastenders between 2000 and 2100 gmt leaving itv1 with about 13%. we are very pleased with the figures a bbc spokesman said. it shows viewers have really enjoyed the story of den s demise. the show s highest audience came at christmas 1986 when more than 30 million tuned in to see den played by leslie grantham hand divorce papers to wife angie. two years later 24 million saw him apparently shot by a man with a bunch of daffodils by a canal. more than 16 million viewers watched his return in 2003. the show s ratings have since settled down to about 12 million per episode. grantham hit the headlines in may after a newspaper printed photographs of him apparently exposing himself via a webcam from his dressing room. he also allegedly insulted four co-stars. he apologised for his deplorable actions and a moment s stupidity . | entertainment | 0 |
bomb threat at bernabeu stadium spectators were evacuated from real madrid s bernabeu stadium on sunday following a bomb scare during the game between the hosts and real sociedad. more than 70 000 people abandoned the ground with the score at 1-1 and only three minutes left to play. the basque newspaper gara apparently received a telephone call saying a bomb was due to explode at 2100 local time. but after searching the stadium with sniffer dogs the police said that no explosive device had been found. the police have said they have completed their search and have not found anything said real madrid president florentino perez. the best thing we can all do now is to put this nightmare behind us. madrid midfielder guti told private spanish radio station cadena ser: i have never seen this before and sport should be above it all. real took the lead just before the break when brazilian striker ronaldo cracked home with his left foot. sociedad levelled the match midway through the second half when turkish striker nihat kahveci smashed home with an acrobatic finish. it is not yet clear if the remaining three minutes of the game will be played at a later date or if the result will be allowed to stand. if the result remains at 1-1 real will drop to third place in the standings 11 points behind leaders barcelona who snatched a late 2-1 win at albacete on saturday. initial reports suggested the basque separatist group eta may be responsible for the bomb threat after issuing similar warnings before a series of small explosions in recent days. the bernabeu was targeted by eta on 1 may 2002 when madrid were about to play fc barcelona in a champions league semi-final. a car bomb exploded in a street outside the stadium and 17 people were slightly injured. | business | 2 |
blair moves to woo jewish voters tony blair has pledged to never ever ever attack tory leader michael howard over his jewish beliefs. the prime minister told the jewish chronicle: if you look at what i do i attack michael howard politically. mr blair also distanced himself from recent labour campaign posters featuring mr howard which critics claimed were anti-semitic . these were not intended to cause any offence to anyone on the jewish community mr blair insisted. one poster depicted mr howard and his shadow chancellor oliver letwin who is also jewish as flying pigs. another pictured the tory leader swinging a pocket watch on a chain which critics said echoed the jewish money lender shylock in shakespeare s merchant of venice. others compared the image to the character fagin in charles dickens oliver twist. labour has since taken the designs of its website saying members had preferred other designs. during his interview with the jewish chronicle mr blair said: i ve been a very strong supporter of the jewish community and israel and will always be so. pressed on whether he would draw attention to mr howard s jewish beliefs in an attempt to attract muslim support he replied: the idea that i would allow anybody to make such a charge is outrageous. it s untrue. if you look what i do i attack michael howard politically. i would never ever ever attack him on that basis. mr blair also defended his party s attitude towards the jewish community pointing out that it was his government that had introduced the holocaust memorial day. he added that labour also aggressively fought all forms of racism. neither the conservatives nor the liberal democrats wished to comment on mr blair s words. the prime minister was speaking as london s labour mayor ken livingstone remains embroiled in a row over comments he made to a jewish reporter from the city s evening standard newspaper. mr blair repeated calls for the mayor to apologise for likening the reporter oliver finegold to a concentration camp guard. mr livingstone should have withdrawn the comment immediately once he realised the journalist was jewish said mr blair. i m sure that is what in truth he wants to do. well he should do it. mr livingstone has said he could not sincerely say sorry for the comments he made and claims he has been targeted by the newspaper. he conceded his comments may have been offensive but were not racist and said earlier this week he would not apologise even if mr blair asked. | science and tech | 2 |
online games play with politics after bubbling under for some time online games broke through onto the political arena in 2004. the us presidential election provided a showcase for many aimed at talking directly to a generation that has grown up with joysticks and gamepads. experts say this reflects how video games are becoming a mainstream part of culture and society. the first official political campaign game was technically launched during the last week of 2003: the iowa game commissioned by the democrat hopeful howard dean. more than 20 followed suit including frontrunner elections president forever and the political machine which allowed players to run an entire presidential campaign including having to cope with the media. others helped raise the stakes during the bush/kerry contest by highlighting a candidate s virtues or his vices. the phenomenon has astonished the forefathers of political games a handful of multi-discipline games enthusiasts keen to push frontiers. when i started researching political games at the university about five years ago i thought it was going to be something that would take decades to happen said gonzalo frasca computer games specialist at the information technology university of copenhagen. i must admit that i was the first person to be surprised at seeing how fast they have evolved added the uruguayan-born researcher who has so far created games for two political campaigns. many artists and designers are experimenting with this form of gaming with an agenda in projects such as newsgaming.com. the aim is to comment on international news events via games. the ability of games to simulate reality makes them a powerful modelling tool to interact with actual situations in an original way. video games generate strong reactions mainly because they are new but also because our culture needs to learn how to deal with simulation mr frasca told the bbc news website. this was the case with the one he created for a political party in uruguay cambiemos an online puzzle game that offered a view on how the country s problems could be solved by working together. it s up to us to explore what we can learn from ourselves through play and video games. ultimately dr frasca sees games as a small laboratory where we can play with our hopes fears and beliefs. children learn a lot about the world through play. there is no reason why we adults should stop doing it as we grow up. but experts estimate it will still take at least about a decade until this new breed of video gaming communication become a common tool for political campaigns. this is hardly surprising compared to other forms of mass media like the worldwide web. only a few years ago most politicians did not have a webpage while now it is almost a must-have. dr frasca said: political campaigns will continue to experiment with video games. they represent a new tool of communication that can reach a younger audience in a language that can clearly speak to them. it will not replace other forms of political propaganda but it will integrate itself on to the media ecology of political campaigns. | entertainment | 2 |
napster offers rented music to go music downloading for those that have rejected the free peer to peer services can be a costly business. the cost of paying even as little as 70p per track can add up particularly for those people who own one of the new generation of players that can store thousands of songs. paying per track for music is becoming as outmoded as paying per minute for internet access and alternative monthly or yearly subscription models are springing up as a more convenient and ultimately cheaper way of owning music. music fans are moving away from buying the traditional bundled package of a dozen or more songs that we used to call an album to newer ways that fit their lifestyle; either single tracks or subscriptions services said paul myers chief executive of wippit a uk-based music download service. while itunes is doing good business with its sales of individual tracks to ipod owners others are questioning whether the concept of owning music is even valid in the digital age. napster is due to launch a new rental subscription service - dubbed napster to go in the uk in the next few months. the service can be used on players that support microsoft windows latest digital rights management technology known as janus. this includes players made by samsung rio and creative. currently on offer in beta-version in the us the service costs $15 per month for unlimited downloads. the technology ensures that music downloaded to the player only remains playable while the user subscribes to the service. users need to update their license on a monthly basis or the tunes will no longer play. this has outraged some digital music lovers especially as napster already offers a cheaper service for downloading music to the pc. napster claims the higher price is a result of record labels charging more for the to-go service and says it also offers greater value for customers. mr myers is not convinced a rental model will work for consumers. we ve been offering our unlimited music subscription service for more than three years now and our customers know what they want. format interoperability excellent value and the reassurance that music purchased from wippit is theirs to keep and enjoy on whatever device they choose he said. who wants to download a track that won t play next month if you decide to unsubscribe to the service or change portable player for an ipod or the latest mobile phone wippit offers a download subscription service for £4.99 per month or £50 per year. it has a catalogue of around 60 000 songs. | world | 2 |
bbc poll indicates economic gloom citizens in a majority of nations surveyed in a bbc world service poll believe the world economy is worsening. most respondents also said their national economy was getting worse. but when asked about their own family s financial outlook a majority in 14 countries said they were positive about the future. almost 23 000 people in 22 countries were questioned for the poll which was mostly conducted before the asian tsunami disaster. the poll found that a majority or plurality of people in 13 countries believed the economy was going downhill compared with respondents in nine countries who believed it was improving. those surveyed in three countries were split. in percentage terms an average of 44% of respondents in each country said the world economy was getting worse compared to 34% who said it was improving. similarly 48% were pessimistic about their national economy while 41% were optimistic. and 47% saw their family s economic conditions improving as against 36% who said they were getting worse. the poll of 22 953 people was conducted by the international polling firm globescan together with the program on international policy attitudes (pipa) at the university of maryland. while the world economy has picked up from difficult times just a few years ago people seem to not have fully absorbed this development though they are personally experiencing its effects said pipa director steven kull. people around the world are saying: i m ok but the world isn t . there may be a perception that war terrorism and religious and political divisions are making the world a worse place even though that has not so far been reflected in global economic performance says the bbc s elizabeth blunt. the countries where people were most optimistic both for the world and for their own families were two fast-growing developing economies china and india followed by indonesia. china has seen two decades of blistering economic growth which has led to wealth creation on a huge scale says the bbc s louisa lim in beijing. but the results also may reflect the untrammelled confidence of people who are subject to endless government propaganda about their country s rosy economic future our correspondent says. south korea was the most pessimistic while respondents in italy and mexico were also quite gloomy. the bbc s david willey in rome says one reason for that result is the changeover from the lira to the euro in 2001 which is widely viewed as the biggest reason why their wages and salaries are worth less than they used to be. the philippines was among the most upbeat countries on prospects for respondents families but one of the most pessimistic about the world economy. pipa conducted the poll from 15 november 2004 to 3 january 2005 across 22 countries in face-to-face or telephone interviews. the interviews took place between 15 november 2004 and 5 january 2005. the margin of error is between 2.5 and 4 points depending on the country. in eight of the countries the sample was limited to major metropolitan areas. | politics | 2 |
abbas will not tolerate attacks palestinian leader mahmoud abbas has said he will not tolerate attacks such as last friday s suicide bombing in the israeli city of tel aviv. in an interview ahead of a meeting in london to discuss palestinian reforms mr abbas said such attacks were against palestinian interests. the palestinian authority (pa) was exerting a 100% effort to end the violence mr abbas added. the attack which killed five was the first of its kind since he took office. mr abbas confirmed israel shared information with the pa in the hunt for the organisers of the attack. the israeli government refuses to accept syria s denials that it was implicated in the nightclub bombing. israeli officials gave an intelligence briefing to foreign ambassadors on monday explaining syria s alleged involvement. british foreign minister jack straw said there had been a continuing stream of information suggesting palestinian militant groups were operating from within syria. in an email interview in the british newspaper the independent mr abbas said: we believe peace is possible now and we are ready to negotiate with israel to reach a true and lasting peace based on justice and international legitimacy. he added: we have an opportunity and it would be irresponsible if we the israelis or the world allow it to slip away. tuesday s meeting on palestinian reform is being hosted by british prime minister tony blair. also due to attend are us secretary of state condoleezza rice un secretary general kofi annan world bank officials and foreign ministers from 23 european and arab countries. the conference was a vital step in renewing the peace process mr straw said. it s a high-level attendance which reflects the sense of momentum and opportunity created by recent events he added. a spokesman for mr blair said the prime minister expected the conference to discuss a comprehensive co-ordinated and above all practical work plan for both the palestinian authority and the international community . israel will not attend but is said to be closely watching the outcome. | politics | 0 |
blair buys copies of new band aid prime minister tony blair purchased two copies of the charity single band aid 20 in edinburgh on friday. staff were surprised when the prime minister walked into hmv at 0900 gmt accompanied by aides and local police. when mr blair came in unannounced we were all pretty gobsmacked said hmv manager clive smith. our customer helper approached him... it was only then we realised he wanted to buy copies of the band aid single rather than the latest eminem album. predicted chart-topper do they know it s christmas is expected to sell at least 300 000 copies by the time the new chart is announced on sunday. however the new version of the 1984 single is not going to be released in the us despite being sold in many countries around the world. us record shops are stocking an import version of do they know it s christmas which is said to be selling very well in los angeles and new york. the original track was released in the us and reached number 13 in the singles chart. british stars who appear on the current recording such as dido and coldplay s chris martin are well-known to music fans across the atlantic along with u2 frontman bono. record company universal is responsible for the global distribution of the single which will be available across europe asia south america and canada. but music fans in the us are still able to access the song and download it on band aid 20 s official website. in 1985 a group of high-profile american stars known as usa for africa came together to record their own fund-raising single we are the world. the song was written by lionel richie and michael jackson with quincy jones as producer. it topped the us charts for three weeks and went on win grammy awards for best record and song. dionne warwick diana ross and tina turner were among the line-up of performers. it is predicted that the band aid 20 song will sell 300 000 copies in the uk by the time the new chart is announced on sunday. the record is also tipped to become this year s christmas number one as the original version did in 1984. proceeds from the sales are going towards relief for the darfur region of sudan and to combat hiv and aids across africa. | entertainment | 0 |
voters don t trust politicians eight out of 10 voters do not trust politicians to tell the truth a new poll conducted for the bbc suggests. and 87% of the 1 000 adults quizzed by icm for bbc news 24 said politicians did not deliver what they promised. the poll comes after foreign secretary jack straw predicted trust would be the key choice at the next election. both the tories and the lib dems are keen to emphasise a perceived lack of trust in tony blair following his claims over iraqi weapons. but according to the bbc poll 61% said the issue of trust made no difference to whether or not they would vote at the next election widely expected on 5 may. the poll also looked at what lay behind the lack of trust in politicians. some 87% said politicians did not keep the promises they made before elections while 92% said they never gave a straight answer . just under three-quarters of respondents (73%) said politicians had shown themselves to be dishonest too often. mr straw told activists in blackburn on thursday that voters would have to decide at the next election which party best deserves their future trust . that in the end is the key choice at the next election. he acknowledged that the public had lost faith in labour but suggested it could persuade people to reinvest their trust with us if the party could overcome tory attempts to spread cynicism in politics. the conservatives are keen to highlight the trust issue. during his response to gordon brown s budget statement on tuesday michael howard compared the chancellor s figures to the prime minister s claims about iraq s weapons of mass destruction. the lib dems are also keen to highlight the trust issue with charles kennedy has claiming voters had a fundamental lack of trust in the prime minister . and the green party unveiled a billboard opposite the palace of westminster accusing the government of lying over the iraq war. former education secretary estelle morris told bbc news 24 that there was a real problem of trust between the public and the politicians. she said she did not feel her own colleagues could be trusted but suggested the three-cornered relationship between the press politicians and the public had a hand in the issue. the public was often turned off by sitting on the sidelines in the battle of words between the politician and the journalist she added. lib dem foreign affairs spokesman menzies campbell said the iraq war had hit trust in politicians hard. issues of war and peace life and death do have a very damaging effect on the credibility of politicians . martin bell who won the tatton seat from tory neil hamilton on anti-corruption platform said politicians often failed to see themselves as others did. we need public figures we trust to tell the truth and who can see themselves as others see them. | business | 2 |
air jamaica back in state control the jamaican government is regaining control of air jamaica in an bid to help the ailing company out of its financial difficulties. the firm has failed to make money since the state sold a majority stake to hotel tycoon gordon stewart in 1994. in common with many carriers air jamaica with debts of $560m (£291m) has been hit by high fuel costs and the impact of the 11 september attacks. the company will be restructured with the aim of finding a new buyer. the administration is committed to a viable national airline that will serve as a major catalyst for our economy said finance minister omar davies. the 35-year-old airline transports about 55% of all passengers to the island and its pilots are reportedly among the best paid in the industry with senior members of staff earning in excess of $234 000 a year. | sports | 2 |
dublin hi-tech labs to shut down dublin s hi-tech research laboratory media labs europe is to shut down. the research centre which was started by the irish government and the massachusetts institute of technology was a hotbed for technology concepts. since its opening in 2000 the centre has developed ideas such as implants for teeth and also aimed to be a digital hub for start-ups in the area. the centre was supposed to be self-funded but has failed to attract the private cash injection it needs. in a statement media labs europe said the decision to close was taken because neither the irish government nor the prestigious us-based massachusetts institute of technology (mit) was willing to fund it. prime minister bertie ahern had wanted to the centre to become a big draw for smaller hi-tech companies in an attempt to regenerate the area. about three dozen small firms were attracted to the area but it is thought the effects of the dot.com recession damaged the labs long-term survival. the labs needed about 10 million euros (us$13 million) a year from corporate sponsors to survive. in the end it was too deep and too long a recession said simon jones the labs managing director. ian pearson bt s futurologist told the bbc news website that the closure was a real shame . bt was just one of the companies that had worked with the labs looking at rfid tag developments and video conferencing. there were a lot of very talented creative people there and they came up with some great ideas that were helping to ensure greater benefits of technology for society. i have no doubt that the individuals will be quickly snapped up by other research labs but the synergies from them working as a team will be lost. noel dempsey the government s communications minister said mr ahern had been very committed to the project. he is i know very disappointed it has come to this. at the time it seemed to be the right thing to do he said. unfortunately the model is not a sustainable one in the current climate. during its five years innovative and some unusual ideas for technologies were developed. in recent months 14 patent applications had been filed by the labs. many concepts fed into science engineering and psychology as well as technology but it is thought too few of the ideas were commercially viable in the near-term. several research teams explored how which humans could react with technologies in ways which were entirely different. the human connectedness group for example developed the iband a bracelet which stored and exchanged information about you and your relationships. this information could be beamed to another wearer when two people shook hands. other projects looked at using other human senses like touch to interact with devoices which could be embedded in the environment or on the body itself. one project examined how brainwaves could directly control a computer game. the labs set up in an old guinness brewery housed around 100 people made up of staff researchers students collaborators and part-time undergraduate students. it is thought more than 50 people will lose their jobs when the labs close on 1 february. according to its latest accounts media lab europe said it spent 8.16 million euros (about us$10.6 million) in 2003 and raised just 2.56 million euros (us$3.3 million). | science and tech | 0 |
a-listers flock to gervais sitcom hollywood actors samuel l jackson and ben stiller have signed up for ricky gervais new sitcom the comedian has told bbc news. he said they had both seen the scripts and had agreed to appear in an episode each of the sitcom extras. they join british stars jude law and kate winslet who have been booked for guest roles. the comic and actor said he had drawn up an a-list of stars he wanted and all had agreed to be in it. we wanted actors who had iconic status but that we could also deconstruct gervais told bbc news. it s not about the zeitgeist. we wanted people who would still be around in 20 years not just the winner of big brother to take part. gervais admitted he was cautious about revealing who would be taking part until they had all signed on the dotted line. but he has met with stiller and jackson and they enjoyed the scripts enough to commit to it. i didn t want to start revealing names until it was all sorted because people just mention people who haven t even been asked. i have been linked with ridiculous stories recently such as i m going to be in a remake of 10 taking dudley moore s part. i haven t been approached and i wouldn t take it anyway. he said stiller and jackson would be playing twisted versions of themselves in extras and that the jokes about them would sail pretty close to the bone . gervais and his writing partner stephen merchant are currently refining the scripts for the six-part series in which gervais plays a struggling actor who bitches about the stars. meanwhile gervais is gearing up to promote his cartoon book flanimals which is released in the us in march around the same time as nbc begin showing the us version of the office. the film rights to flanimals have already been snapped up but gervais is keen for the project to be taken slowly. a film will happen over the next three years but i don t want it to be a $50m movie straight away because it is not well enough known and it wouldn t be another spider-man or batman. i would like to do something small on tv with it first. | entertainment | 0 |
arnesen denies rift with santini tottenham sporting director frank arnesen has denied that coach jacques santini resigned because of a clash of personalities at white hart lane. there had been newspaper speculation that santini had felt undermined by arnesen s role at the club. it is absolutely not true arnesen told bbc radio five live. there is only one thing that made him resign and that is his own personal problems. he has talked to me recently and said this matter is absolutely for himself. arnesen said he was unable to throw any light onto the problems that caused santini to quit after just 13 games in charge. he added: jacques has never gone into exactly what it was. but i trust him in that; you have to accept it. i think we should respect it. the plan is now that over the weekend we will have talks with the board and then on monday we will clarify the situation. arnesen countered criticism at the timing of the announcement coming less than 24 hours before tottenham s premiership fixture with charlton. when it comes down to personal problems i don t think we should talk about timing he said. and he also denied reports that santini had been given a £3m pay-off. that is absolute nonsense. he is the one who said i will go and so he went said the spurs sporting director. tottenham s structure of having a sporting director working alongside a coach is based on a continental model and arnesen sees no reason why they should change it. i have confidence in this structure. i am confident that we have started something here in july and i still have a lot of confidence in tottenham and what we are doing he said. however former spurs and england defender gary stevens said he would not be surprised if the system had caused a rift. i think the problems go a lot deeper between the director of football at white hart lane and santini stevens told five live. on paper they could have worked together. but frank arnesen was a very creative forward-thinking and expansive player - whereas i think santini was very much the opposite more a case of being organised disciplined and happy not conceding goals. that sort of arrangement can work if the two people have the same principles and ideals and work very closely. but it seems that has not happened. | sports | 0 |
british stars denied major oscars british hopes of winning major oscars were dashed as uk stars failed to win acting and directing prizes. despite three nominations mike leigh s vera drake failed to take the director or screenplay awards and there was no prize for star imelda staunton. kate winslet also lost to best actress hilary swank while clive owen and sophie okonedo failed to win best supporting actor awards. the uk s andrea arnold won the short film award for her gritty drama wasp. arnold who presented children s television shows number 73 and motormouth in the 1980s said it was totally overwhelming to win. wasp tells the story of a single mother living on the breadline beating films by fellow uk nominees gary mckendry and ashvin kumar. everyone worked extremely hard - they know who they are arnold said as she accepted the prize. the beers are on me when we get home. earlier british costume designer sandy powell won the oscar for the aviator beating finding neverland s uk designer alexandra byrne in the process. i m very thrilled for the film and all the people who worked with me said ms powell. hopefully i ll be staying up to celebrate - i ve been sick for three days and want to make it through the night. the british visual effects team behind harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban were less fortunate however losing the oscar in that category to spider-man 2. before sunday s ceremony owen was bookmakers favourite for his role in romantic drama closer that had already clinched him a golden globe award. it was the first time actress okonedo had been shortlisted chosen for her performance in hotel rwanda about the 1994 rwandan genocide. it was also a debut nomination for staunton 49 who played abortionist vera drake in mike leigh s film. leigh had previously received three oscar nominations for secrets and lies and topsy turvy. winslet said she was ecstatic about the fourth oscar nomination of her career this time for her lead role in eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. among other british talent nominated for oscars composer andrew lloyd webber and lyricist charles hart were nominated for best original song for learn to be lonely from the phantom of the opera movie. that award was won by al otro lado del rio from the motorcycle diaries. cinematographer john mathieson who was nominated for gladiator in 2001 was also up for the phantom of the opera but lost to the aviator. finding neverland garnered another nomination for british talent with gemma jackson shortlisted for the art direction prize. she lost in that category to the aviator. a spokesman for the uk film council said: it is disappointing not to have more british winners. he added: it was extraordinary to have 24 british nominees in the initial list of nominees. | business | 2 |
officials respond in court row australian tennis top official has defended the australian open courts at melbourne park after criticism of the playing surface by lleyton hewitt. hewitt said he had had a gutful of trying to persuade them to make the surface faster but tennis australia s geoff pollard rejected his comments. we did ask for it to be made faster than last year and to my knowledge it is faster he said. we spent a substantial amount of money on modifications to make it faster. hewitt who has not got past the fourth round at melbourne in seven attempts had earlier said the surface was not worthy of such a prestigious tournament. but he said he would play on whatever surface he had to in order to have a chance of winning. the tournament starts on 17 january and pollard said the surface had been speeded up since last year s tournament following complaints by several australian players. but he refused to accept that the melbourne surface may have had a bearing on hewitt s performances over the years. lleyton s proving how versatile he is on all surfaces he said. it is faster than last year and that ll be faster than the one lleyton beat roger federer on in the davis cup in 2003. | world | 2 |
howard rebuts asylum criticisms tory leader michael howard has gone on the offensive in response to people questioning how a son of immigrants can propose asylum quotas. mr howard whose parents fled the nazi threat to come to the uk says the claim would mean no-one from an immigrant family could become premier. his comments come in a bbc documentary called no more mr nasty . tv presenter anne robinson said as home secretary he gave the impression he would like to kick your cat . ms robinson a friend of the tory leader also revealed that as a cambridge student mr howard was much loved by women and he was a courteous and kind and rather dashing lover - although she denied having personal experience. i wasn t at cambridge - and it s not personal experience - but i know people who were. documentary maker michael cockerell was given behind-the-scenes access to mr howard for his film portrait. the tory leader was asked about to respond to people who said that if there had there been a quota on immigration and asylum in the 1930s his parents might not have been allowed into the country. he replies: what is the inference of that that if you reach the view that you need to control immigration in the interests of the country you re not allowed to put a view forward if you happen to be descended from immigrants that seems to me an absolutely extraordinary proposition it would certainly mean no one from immigrant parents could be prime minister. ms robinson who presents the weakest link tells cockerell that she despaired at his hardline image when he was home secretary in john major s government. i used to have to sit on my hands because he d get on television and give a passable impression of someone who d like to kick your cat or would put your baby in prison if he cried. i mean it was very very draconian. the film shows mr howard laughing at rory bremner s impression of him as dracula which he calls good fun apart from the serious falsehood of a comment suggesting he wants fewer black people in the uk. the film shows the private side of the tory leader watching television at home or playing table tennis with his wife ex-model sandra. asked if she enjoys a game of ping pong she confesses: yeah it would be more enjoyable if i could win occasionally too but otherwise it s quite fun. former downing street communications chief alastair campbell now working on labour s election campaign says a touchy-feely image does not fit mr howard. he says tony blair was not worried by his opponents early performance in their commons clashes because mr howard lacked a big strategy including on issues like iraq. the tory leader brands such criticisms as absolutely rubbish arguing that he has been consistent on his support for the war but critical of mr blair s failure to tell the truth on intelligence. former tory chancellor ken clarke says mr howard has a bigger problem changing perceptions of the tory party than his personal image. mr clarke says the party is improving and it is conceivable it could win the next election. but he adds: it has got to change itself a bit and broaden its appeal. - michael howard: no more mr nasty is being shown on bbc2 on saturday 12 february at 2005 gmt. | science and tech | 2 |
tory stalking horse meyer dies sir anthony meyer the tory backbencher who challenged margaret thatcher for the party leadership in 1989 has died. he was 84 had been suffering from cancer for many months and died at his london home. that failed stalking horse leadership challenge made it easier for michael heseltine to mount his own bid. that in turn paved the way for john major to move into 10 downing street after the second ballot. meyer s constituency party clwyd north west which he had represented as an mp for more than 20 years deselected him as a result of that challenge. sir anthony john charles meyer was born on 27 october 1920. educated at eton and at new college oxford he served in the scots guards from 1941 to 1945 and was wounded in tanks in normandy. he worked under edward heath on europe at the foreign office and subsequently won the eton and slough seat for the tories in 1964 - by 11 votes. labour regained the seat two years later and meyer had to wait until 1970 before he could re-enter parliament. his prospects of a front bench slot remained remote because he tended to defy the party line. | politics | 0 |
bmw to recall faulty diesel cars bmw is to recall all cars equipped with a faulty diesel fuel-injection pump supplied by parts maker robert bosch. the faulty part does not represent a safety risk and the recall only affects pumps made in december and january. bmw said that it was too early to say how many cars were affected or how much the recall would cost. the german company is to extend a planned production break at one of its plants due to the faulty bosch part. the dingolfing site will now be closed all next week instead of for just two days. the additional three-day stoppage will mean a production loss of up to 3 600 vehicles bmw said adding that it was confident it could make up the numbers later. bosch has stopped production of the part but expects to restart by 2 february. the faulty component does not represent a safety risk but causes the motor to stall after a significant amount of mileage. when asked if bmw would be seeking compensation from bosch the carmaker s chief executive helmut panke said: we will first solve the problem before talking about who will pay . audi and mercedes benz were also supplied with the defective diesel fuel-injection pumps but neither of them have to recall any vehicles. a spokesman for daimlerchrysler parent company of mercedes benz said it will however have to halt some production. it is to close the mercedes factory in sindelfingen on monday and tuesday. audi said it had been hit by production bottlenecks due to a shortage of unaffected bosch parts. | business | 0 |
rings of steel combat net attacks gambling is hugely popular especially with tech-savvy criminals. many extortionists are targeting net-based betting firms and threatening to cripple their websites with deluges of data unless a ransom is paid. but now deep defences are being put in place by some of the uk s biggest net firms to stop these attacks. increasing numbers of attacks and the huge amounts of data being used to try to bump a site off the web are prompting firms to adopt the measures. net firms are realising that it s not just about anti-virus and firewalls said paul king chief security architect at cisco. there are more things that can be done in the network to protect data centres. mr king said the only way to properly combat these so-called distributed denial-of-service attacks was with intelligent net-based systems. many of the gambling sites suffering ddos attacks are in offshore data and hosting centres so any large scale data flood could knock out access to many more sites than just the one the criminals were targeting said mr king. this overspill effect was only likely to grow as attacks grow in size and scale. malcolm seagrave security expert at energis said the most common types of attacks hit sites with 10 megabytes of data over short periods of time. bigger attacks sending down 200 megabytes of traffic or more were rarely seen he said. it does feel like they are turning the dial because you see this traffic gradually growing he said. so far there have been no attacks involving gigabytes of data said mr seagrave. however he added that it was only a matter of time before such large attacks were mounted. maria capella spokeswoman for net provider pipex said that when ddos attacks were at their height customers were getting hit every four to five days. the defences being put in place constantly monitor the streams of data flowing across networks and pluck out the traffic destined for target sites. it s about understanding what s genuine traffic and keeping attack traffic from going to the site she said. we study the profile of their traffic and as soon as we see an anomaly in the profile that s when we start to get the backbone engineering boys to see if we are going to sustain an attack said ms capella. this traffic can be hard to spot because ddos attacks typically use thousands of computers in many different countries each participating machine only sends a small part of the entire data flood. typically these computers have been infected by a virus or worm which reports its success and the net address of compromised machines back to the malicious hacker or hi-tech criminal that set off the virus. hijacked computers are known as zombies or bots and collections of them are called bot nets. many spammers rent out bot nets to help them anonymously send junk mail. most of the zombies are based outside the country that hosts the target site so getting the attacking pcs shut off can be difficult. often pipex and other net suppliers do get advance notice that an attack is about to happen. the serious players tend to precede an attack with some kind of ransom e-mail said ms capella. we ask as part of the service we provide that customers notify us of anything they have in advance that would give us forewarning. once an attack is spotted dedicated net hardware takes over to remove the attack traffic and ensure that sites stay up. energis took a similar approach said mr seagrave. we have technology out there that allows us to detect attacks in minutes rather than let network engineers spend hours pulling the information together said mr seagrave. also net firms were starting to work more closely together on the problem of ddos attacks and pool information about where they are coming from. information gathered on attacks and where they originated has led to some arrests. he said energis also did its own intelligence work to get in insight into which sites criminal gangs plan to target. we have people in places where they shouldn t be monitoring tech sites he said. sometimes though he said spotting the next victim was easy. you can see them going alphabetically through the list with the gambling sites trying one after another said mr seagrave. | science and tech | 0 |
toxic web links help virus spread virus writers have begun using the power of the web to spread their malicious wares. a windows virus called bofra is turning infected machines into distributors of its malicious code. those clicking on the poisoned links in e-mail messages sent out by infected machines may fall victim to the virus. the trick is being used to prevent the progam being caught by anti-virus software that combs through code contained in e-mail attachments. the virus that uses this trick is called bofra and the first member of the family of worms appeared on 10 november. they exploit a windows vulnerability that was discovered only a few days earlier. like many other recent viruses bofra plunders the address book in microsoft outlook for e-mail addresses and scours other files on an infected machine for fresh target addresses. the virus uses its own mail sending software to despatch e-mail messages to potential victims but unlike many other recent viruses does not itself travel via mail. instead the body of the mail messages sent out contain fake weblinks that when clicked on connect back to the machine that distributed that e-mail. essentially bofra turns infected machines into small web servers that happily dole out copies of the virus. the messages try to trick people into clicking on the links by promising pornographic videos and images or by posing as payment confirmation for a paypal transaction. copies of the messages seen by the bbc news website had bright yellow and green backgrounds. those clicking on the links will inadvertently download the bofra virus which will then start searching for new addresses to send itself to. filtering firm clearswift said this tactic of creating thousands of mini web servers was designed to help the virus spread quickly and avoid attempts to shut it down. in the past other malicious programs have relied on a single web server that downloads viral code to target machines. shutting down this central server usually stops the virus spreading. clearswift said that fact that no viral code travels in the e-mail messages sent out by machines infected by bofra could hamper effects to limit its spread. finnish anti-virus firm f-secure said that so far it had not seen many copies of the bofra virus and its variants in circulation. tim warner spokesman for anti-virus firm finjan said: you have people getting very creative now to deliver the virus and get it propagating. mr warner said organisations needed to prepare deep defences to keep out the modern form of malicious mobile code. most firms have secured their e-mail gateway said mr warner but the irony is that most of them let malicious content through the web gateways. he said behavioural systems that monitor what users do can help to spot when viruses have penetrated organisations and have started hunting for other victims. the bofra family of viruses which were originally thought to be offshoots of the mydoom bug can infect machines running windows 2000 95 98 me nt xp and server 2003. users running windows xp that have applied the sp2 update are not vulnerable to the loophole that bofra exploits. | science and tech | 0 |
terror suspects face house arrest uk citizens suspected of involvement in terrorism could face house arrest as part of a series of new measures outlined by the home secretary. it comes after law lords ruled that the detention of 12 foreign terror suspects without trial breached human rights. charles clarke s planned control orders mean anyone suspected of being involved in terrorism could be subject to house arrest curfews or tagging. the law society dubbed mr clarke s new proposals an abuse of power . deals are already being sought to deport some of the foreign detainees who are mainly held in belmarsh prison in london under the current laws introduced after the us terror attacks on 11 september 2001. mr clarke said efforts would continue to deport them to their countries of origin algeria tunisia egypt and jordan without them facing torture or death. under the proposed changes - prompted by the house of lords ruling - the home secretary could order british citizens or foreign suspects who could not be deported to face house arrest or other measures such as restrictions on their movements or limits on their use of telephones and the internet. british citizens are being included in the changes after the law lords said the current powers were discriminatory because they could only be used on foreign suspects. mr clarke also said intelligence reports showed some british nationals were now playing a more significant role in terror threats. human rights lawyer clive stafford-smith said the plans were a further abuse of human rights in britain . mr clarke said prosecutions were the government s first preference and promised the powers would only be used in serious cases with independent scrutiny from judges. he told mps: there remains a public emergency threatening the life of the nation. he accepted the law lords ruling but argued detention powers had helped prevent attacks and deter terrorists. the current detainees would not be freed until the new powers were in place as they were still considered a national security threat he told mps. there have been calls for the rules for wire-tap and intercept evidence to be allowed to be used in courts but mr clarke refused to back that change. he said intercept evidence was only a small part of the case against the men and some of it could not be used because it could put sources lives at risk. most of the terror suspects are being held indefinitely at belmarsh prison in london. conservative shadow home secretary david davis was worried about extending special powers to cover british citizens. he warned: throughout history internment has generally backfired because of the resentment it creates. so unless the process is clearly just the home secretary could find himself confining one known terrorist only to recruit 10 unknown terrorists. he suggested changing the law to let security-cleared judges view evidence gathered by phone-tapping could allow more terror cases to come to court. liberal democrat spokesman mark oaten also backed use of wire-tap evidence. he said the standard of proof for the new powers would have to be very high indeed and he asked whether ministers had looked at measures which fitted with human rights laws. shami chakrabarti from human rights group liberty joined calls for intercept evidence to be allowed in trials. she said: adherence to the rule of law should not be a game of cat and mouse. the government should not swap one human rights opt out for another. | world | 2 |
celts savour grand slam prospect the six nations has heralded a new order in northern hemisphere rugby this year and wales and ireland rather than traditional big guns france and england face a potential grand slam play-off in three weeks time. but before that game in cardiff wales must get past scotland at murrayfield while ireland face the not insignificant task of a home fixture with the mercurial french. no-one knows what mood france will be in at lansdowne road on 12 march - sublime as in the first half against wales or ridiculous like in the same period against england at twickenham. but how the mighty have fallen. england sat on rugby s summit 15 months ago as world champions and 2003 grand slam winners. but they have lost nine of their 14 matches since that heady night in sydney. and they face the ignominy of what could amount to a wooden spoon play-off against italy in a fortnight. england are enduring their worst run in the championship since captain richard hill was dumped in favour of mike harrison after three straight losses in 1987. coach andy robinson who took over from the successful sir clive woodward in september has lost a phalanx of world cup stars. and he is enduring the toughest of teething problems in bedding down his own style with a new team. the same year that england ruled the roost a woeful wales lost all five matches in the six nations. and they won only two games against scotland and italy in 2004. wales most recent championship title was in 1994 and their last grand slam success came in 1978 in the era of gareth edwards phil bennett jpr williams et al. but welsh rugby fans remain on permanent tenterhooks for the blossoming of a new golden age. after several false dawns coach mike ruddock may have come up with the team and philosophy to match expectations. the fresh verve is inspired by skipper gareth thomas now out with a broken thumb accurate kicking from either fly-half stephen jones or centre gavin henson a rampant martyn williams leading the way up front and exciting runners in the guise of henson and shane williams. ireland coach eddie o sullivan and captain brian o driscoll have got their side buzzing too and they are close to shedding the nearly-men tag that has dogged them for the past few years. the men from the emerald isle have been six nations runners-up for the past two years to france and england. but they have not won the title since 1985 and last clinched a grand slam in 1948. as for scotland they have struggled this decade and the 2004 wooden spoon winners have not been in the top two since they lifted the title in 1999. italy continue the elusive search for their first six nations away win and can still only account for the scalps of scotland (twice) and wales since joining the elite in 2000. coach john kirwan is a passionate and dedicated believer in the azzurri but is lacking in raw materials. and so to france. brilliant one minute inept the next. but the reigning champions could quite easily turn on the style in dublin and end up winning the title through the back door. ireland though have won three times in their last five meetings. welsh romantics would probably prefer a glorious victory in the celtic showdown to crown their grand slam. but given that ireland have beaten wales in four of their last five meetings the welsh legions are likely to be behind les bleus on 12 march. | sports | 0 |
circuit city gets takeover offer circuit city stores the second-largest electronics retailer in the us has received a $3.25bn (£1.7bn) takeover offer. the bid has come from boston-based private investment firm highfields capital management which already owns 6.7% of circuit city s shares. shares in the retailer were up 19.6% at $17.04 in tuesday morning trading in new york following the announcement. highfield said that it intends to take the virginia-based firm private. such a transformation would eliminate the public-company transparency into the company s operating strategy that is uniquely damaging in a highly competitive industry where circuit city is going head-to-head with a tough and entrenched rival highfield said. one analyst suggested that a bidding battle may now begin for the company. bill armstrong a retail analyst at cl king & associates said he expected to see other private investment firms come forward for circuit city. the retailer is debt free with a good cash flow despite the fact that it is said to be struggling to keep up with market leader best buy and cut-price competition from the likes of wal-mart said mr armstrong. | business | 0 |
indonesia declines debt freeze indonesia no longer needs the debt freeze offered by the paris club group of creditors economics minister aburizal bakrie has reportedly said. indonesia which originally accepted the debt moratorium offer owes the paris club about $48bn (£25.5bn). mr bakrie told the bisnis indonesia newspaper that a $1.7bn donors aid package meant that the debt moratorium was unnecessary. this aid comes on top of a previously-pledged $3.4bn package. most of this normal aid would be used to finance the country s budget deficit. the indonesian economics minister explained that the money - $1.2bn in grants and $500m in soft loans - was for the rebuilding of aceh province which was badly hit by the tsunami of 26 december. nevertheless one of mr bakrie s deputies mahendra siregar told afp news agency that indonesia was still considering the offer by the paris club of rich creditor nations to temporarily suspend its debt payments. what is true is that we are still discussing... the paris club decision to find out more details such as how much of our debt will be subject to a moratorium. that s how far we are at this stage said mr siregar. the 19 member countries of the paris club are owed about $5bn this year in debt repayments by nations affected by the indian ocean tsunami. indonesia sri lanka and the seychelles accepted the paris club offer which was criticised by some aid groups as being too little. thailand and india have however declined the offer with thailand prefering to keep up with its payments while india said it would prefer to rely on its own resources rather than on international aid. putting off payments may lower a country s rating among financial organisations making it more expensive and more difficult for them to borrow money in the future analysts said. separately the indonesian government has said it will announce monthly how much it has received in foreign donations and how it has spent the money. welfare minister alwi shihab told ap news agency that this announcement should allay suspicion of official corruption in relief operations. | business | 0 |
ad firm wpp s profits surge 15% uk advertising giant wpp has posted larger-than-expected annual profits and predicted that it will outperform the market in 2005. pre-tax profits rose 15% from a year ago to reach £546m ($1.04bn) ahead of average analysts forecasts of £532m. revenues were £4.3bn while the firm s operating margins were 14.1% which it said could reach 14.8% by 2006. during the year wpp bought us rival grey global creating a giant big enough to rival sector leader omnicom. chief executive martin sorrell on friday told reuters news agency that wpp had submitted a proposal for united business media s nop world market research unit. analysts say the unit sell could sell for up to £350m. wpp in recent years has also bought firms such as ogilvy & mather and cordiant communications. it also includes the firms young & rubicam and j walter thompson. events such as the olympics helped boost wpp s profits in 2004. the company said the us congressional elections and the fifa world cup are likely to present advertising opportunities in the near future. the long-term outlook looks very favourable because of media and technology developments and the strength of the us economy wpp said. | politics | 2 |
slim playstation triples sales sony playstation 2 s slimmer shape has proved popular with uk gamers with 50 000 sold in its first week on sale. sales have tripled since launch outstripping microsoft s xbox said market analysts chart-track. the numbers were also boosted by the release of the ps2-only game grand theft auto: san andreas. the title broke the uk sales record for video games in its first weekend of release. latest figures suggest it has sold more than 677 000 copies. it is obviously very very encouraging for sony because microsoft briefly outsold them last week john houlihan editor of computerandvideogames.com told bbc news. and with halo 2 [for xbox] out next week it really is a head-to-head contest between them and xbox. although xbox sales over the last week also climbed ps2 sales were more than double that. the figures mean sony is reaching the seven million barrier for uk sales of the console. edinburgh-based developer rockstar which is behind the gta titles has seen san andreas pull in an estimated £24m in gross revenues over the weekend. in comparison blockbuster films like harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban took £11.5m in its first three days at the uk box office. the lord of the rings: the return of the king took nearly £10m over its opening weekend although games titles are four to five times more expensive than cinema tickets. gangster-themed gta san andreas is the sequel to grand theft auto vice city which previously held the record for the fastest-selling video game ever. the xbox game halo 2 released on 11 november in the uk is also widely tipped to be one of the best-selling games of the year. the original title won universal acclaim in 2001 and sold more than four million copies. mr houlihan added that sony had done well with the ps2 but it definitely helped that the release of san andreas coincided with the slimline ps2 hitting the shelves. the run-up to christmas is a huge battlefield for games consoles and titles. microsoft s xbox had been winning the race up until last week in sales. the sales figures also suggest that it may be a largely adult audience driving demand since gta san andreas has an 18 certificate. sony and microsoft have both reduced console prices recently and are preparing the way for the launches of their next generation consoles in 2005. both have hit crucial price points at around £100 and that really does open up new consoles to new audience plus the release of two really important games in terms of development are also driving those sales said mr houlihan. | world | 2 |
melzer shocks agassi second seed andre agassi suffered a comprehensive defeat by jurgen melzer in the quarter-finals of the sap open. agassi was often bamboozled by the austrian s drop shots in san jose losing 6-3 6-1. defending champion and top seed andy roddick rallied to beat sweden s thomas enqvist 3-6 7-6 (8-6) 7-5. but unseeded cyril saulnier beat the fourth seed vincent spadea 6-2 6-4 and tommy haas overcame eighth seed max mirnyi 6-7 (2-7) 7-6 (7-3) 6-2. melzer has now beaten agassi in two of their three meetings. i had a good game plan and i executed it perfectly he said. it s always tough to come out to play andre. i didn t want him to play his game. he makes you run like a dog all over the court. and agassi who was more than matched for power by his opponent s two-handed backhand said melzer was an example of several players on the tour willing to take their chances against him. a lot more guys are capable of it now said the american. he played much better than me. that s what he did both times. i had opportunities to loosen myself up agassi added. but i didn t convert on the big points. | politics | 2 |
algeria hit by further gas riots algeria suffered a weekend of violent protests against government plans to raise gas prices local press reports. demonstrators in a number of regions blocked roads attacked public buildings and overturned vehicles newspapers including el watan reported. the price of butane gas a vital fuel for cooking has risen to 200 dinars ($2.77) per canister from 170 dinars. even before the hike failing economic conditions had been fanning resentment in some of algeria s poorest regions. demonstrators took to the streets last week when the cost change was first announced but police seemed to have restored order. according to local press reports trouble flared up again on saturday and carried on into sunday. el watan said that a number of hot spots centred on the villages and towns close to bouira about 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of the capital algiers. among the other main areas affected were the western tiaret region and sidi ammar in the east of the country agence france presse (afp) reported. riots also flared up in the maghnia region close to the border with morocco in the west afp said. butane gas and fuel oil are used as the main source of fuel to heat homes and cook food in algeria s remote mountain areas. | world | 2 |
bridge could miss rest of season chelsea left-back wayne bridge could miss the rest of the season with a suspected broken ankle. the england international 24 was hurt in an innocuous challenge with alan shearer during the londoners fa cup defeat at newcastle on sunday. we think it s a big injury said jose mourinho whose chelsea team this week meet barcelona in the champions league and liverpool in the carling cup final. william gallas and damien duff could also miss the barcelona game. france defender gallas and ireland winger duff both picked up their injuries in the closing stages of chelsea s 1-0 defeat at st james park. with bridge having gone off after mourinho used all three substitutes those knocks plus carlo cudicini s red card meant chelsea finished the game with seven able-bodied players. cudicini would not have played against barcelona but had been promised a game in the carling cup final although he will now miss the cardiff showpiece through suspension. the manager is not planning to add any new names to his squad ahead of the trip to barcelona even though he has few options to replace bridge at left-back. celestine babayaro left the club in january ironically to join newcastle and although gallas has deputised at left-back before he is struggling to be fit himself. it could be that paulo ferreira usually a right-back is switched to left-back with glen johnson who ended the newcastle game in goal playing on the right. youngsters ben hudell joe keenan and sam tillen would be options should mourinho decide to call up a replacement but it is unlikely he would risk an untried prospect in a champions league tie. bridge s injury also means mourinho who reportedly wants to sign ashley cole from arsenal will not have a specialist senior left-back for the run-in to the season. he (bridge) has no chance of playing against barcelona probably will not play against liverpool (in the carling cup final) and maybe not for the rest of the season he said. the medical department will try to do everything to recover gallas and duff. we will have to wait and see but i won t cry about injuries because we will have 11 players to play on tuesday. shearer said he was unsure what caused bridge s injury. i don t know what happened. he said. it was just a shame. i don t think we even touched each other. by all accounts it s pretty serious. i went into the dressing-room after the game and wished him all the best. mourinho whose team are chasing three trophies has already lost winger arjen robben to a serious injury. | sports | 0 |
thomas out of six nations wales captain gareth thomas has been ruled out of the rest of the six nations with a broken thumb. the full-back will have surgery on monday after fracturing his thumb in the 24-18 win over france on saturday. but welsh legend phil bennett insisted wales can cope without thomas as they chase a first grand slam in 27 years. bennett told bbc sport: such is the spirit in the camp they ll put kevin morgan at 15 rhys williams at wing and just carry on. thomas will miss the match against scotland on 13 march and what promises to be a huge encounter against the irish six days later. bennett added: it s a setback. he s a great captain he leads from the front and the boys love him. thomas was replaced at half-time by williams as his side turned around a 15-6 deficit in paris. with gareth missing i would think michael owen will be our captain said wales coach mike ruddock. he did a great job in the second half in france. he has been vice-captain all along throughout the championship. wales travel to edinburgh to take on scotland in a fortnight and then host ireland in cardiff in the final round of matches in what could be the grand slam and championship decider. bennett an inspirational fly-half for llanelli and wales in the 1970s insisted the national team were entering a new golden period. it was a great game and a magnificent result for wales bennett told bbc radio five live s sportsweek programme. the way this young team are blending the glory days are on their way back. we couldn t get possession early on and france dominated and scored two tries. had they been ruthless wales could have gone into the interval 30 points down. but they didn t take their chances. wales defended fairly well but you cannot give that sort of quality ball to good sides. the all blacks would have been ruthless and buried us in the first half. but the character we showed in the second half was quite outstanding. | business | 2 |
brit awards for devon music acts devon singer joss stone and rock band muse won coveted brit awards during the event s 25th anniversary. seventeen-year-old stone from near cullumpton won two awards: best british female act and best urban act out of three award nominations. muse whose members met in south devon beat franz ferdinand jamie cullum kasabian and the libertines for best british live act. the band has sold about two million records worldwide. after beating amy winehouse jamelia natasha bedingfield and pj harvey to the best british female prize joss stone said: i don t know what to say. i don t like doing this at all. i d like to thank my family for being really supportive and everybody that made my record with me. i don t even know what to do right now. thank you all you guys for voting for me i feel sick right now. viewers of digital music tv channel mtv base voted stone the winner in the best urban act category. ms stone also performed her song right to be wrong backed by a gospel choir at the 25th award ceremony at london s earls court. her second album mind body & soul reached number one in the uk charts last october and went straight into the us charts at number 11. the teenager also has grammy nominations in the us normally dominated by home-grown acts. born jocelyn stoker the devon diva started her career in a bbc talent programme and was then discovered at a new york audition by a us record executive steve greenberg. indie rock group muse consists of matthew bellamy chris wolstenholme and dominic howard who met in their early teens in teignmouth south devon. dominic howard said of winning: we love playing live it s very important for our band. so to win something like this really feels great. the trio met aged 13 and formed the band gothic plague changing its name to fixed penalty rocket baby dolls and finally muse. the band released its first self-titled ep in 1998. the third studio album absolution was released in 2003 providing the hit singles time is running out hysteria and butterflies and hurricanes. | entertainment | 0 |
bt offers free net phone calls bt is offering customers free internet telephone calls if they sign up to broadband in december. the christmas give-away entitles customers to free telephone calls anywhere in the uk via the internet. users will need to use bt s internet telephony software known as bt communicator and have a microphone and speakers or headset on their pc. bt has launched the promotion to show off the potential of a broadband connection to customers. people wanting to take advantage of the offer will need to be a bt together fixed-line customer and will have to sign up to broadband online. the offer will be limited to the first 50 000 people who sign up and there are limitations - the free calls do not include calls to mobiles non-geographical numbers such as 0870 premium numbers or international numbers. bt is keen to provide extra services to its broadband customers. people already using bt communicator have found it by far the most convenient way of making a call if they are at their pc said andrew burke director of value-added services at bt retail. as more homes get high-speed access providers are increasingly offering add-ons such as cheap net calls. broadband and telephony are attractive to customers and bt wants to make sure it is in the first wave of services said ian fogg an analyst with jupiter research. bt communicator had a quiet launch in the summer and now bt is waving the flag a bit more for it he added. bt has struggled to maintain its market share of broadband subscribers as more competitors enter the market. reports say that bt has lost around 10% of market share over the last year down from half of broadband users to less than 40%. bt is hoping its latest offer can persuade more people to jump on the broadband bandwagon. it currently has 1.3 million broadband subscribers. | science and tech | 0 |
bates seals takeover ken bates has completed his takeover of leeds united. the 73-year-old former chelsea chairman sealed the deal at 0227 gmt on friday and has bought a 50% stake in the club. he said: i m delighted to be stepping up to the mantel at such a fantastic club. i recognise leeds as a great club that has fallen on hard times. we have a lot of hard work ahead to get the club back where it belongs in the premiership and with the help of our fans we will do everything we can. bates bought his stake under the guise of a geneva-based company known as the forward sports fund. he revealed that part of his plan is to buy back leeds elland road stadium and thorp arch training ground in due course. it s going to be a tough jon and the first task is to stabilise the cash flow and sort out the remaining creditors bates added. but there is light at the end of a very long tunnel. for the past year it has been a matter of firefighting - now we can start running the club again. outgoing leeds chairman gerald krasner said: this deal ensures the medium to long term survival of the club and i believe mr bates proposals are totally for the benefit of the club. we are content that under mr bates leeds united will continue to consolidate and move forward. when we took over leeds united in march 2004 the club had a debt of £103m since that date my board has succeeded in reducing the debt to under £25m. we worked tirelessly to solve all of the problems at leeds united. eighty percent of the problems have already been overcome and we came to this agreement with mr bates to secure its ongoing success. krasner revealed that his consortium has been asked to remain in the background at the club for an undisclosed period to help ensure a smooth hand-over. he will stay on in an unpaid capacity while peter lorimer will continue in his role as director and point of contact for the fans and peter mccormick will serve as a consultant to the incoming board. the other outgoing directors have agreed to leave their loans of £4.5m in the company for the next four years. on leeds new-look board it is understood that lorimer will be joined by former chelsea finance director yvonne todd and bates lawyer mark taylor. krasner refused to give any details of the finances involved in the takeover. he told bbc five live: i am not going into the figures. if ken wants to give them up that is up to him. i can not tell you what the money will be used for. this dea l is not about money for the current board. in the last four months i never saw any cheques until this week from one person. i am not stretching figures we don t discuss internal arrangements. bates stepped down as chelsea chairman in march last year following roman abramovich s £140m takeover at stamford bridge. in may he made a proposal to invest £10m in sheffield wednesday but this was rejected by the club. sebastien sainsbury had been close to a takeover of leeds but withdrew his £25m offer last week. his efforts failed after he revealed it would take £40m to stage a takeover and that the club will also lose £10m over the next six months. the club was on the brink of administration - and the deduction of 10 points by the football league - before bates arrival but his investment has spared them that prospect. | entertainment | 2 |
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. | world | 2 |
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. | entertainment | 2 |
israeli club look to africa four african players including zimbabwe goalkeeper energy murambadoro are all ready to play for israeli club hapoel bnei sakhnin in the uefa cup. bnei sakhnin are the first arab side ever to play in european competition and will play english premiership side newcastle united in the first round. warriors goalkeeper murambadoro who made a name for himself at the african nations cup finals in tunisia helped bnei sakhnin overcome albania s partizani tirana 6-1 in the previous round. murambadoro moved to israel recently after a brief stint with south african club hellenic. the club won the israeli cup final last season and are based in sakhnin which is near haifa. the club have a strong ethic and are high profile promoters of peace and co-operation within israel. the three other africans at the club are former cameroon defender ernest etchi dr congo s alain masudi and nigerian midfielder edith agoye who had a stint with tunisian side esperance. | sports | 0 |
smith aims to bring back respect scotland manager walter smith says he wants to restore the national team s respectability in world football. smith has joined his first squad for a three-day get-together near manchester in preference to playing a friendly. while qualification for the 2006 world cup appears to be beyond scotland smith is anxious that the remainder of the campaign should be positive. i think we have got to try to get a bit of respectability back in whatever way we can he said. we will have to approach each game differently. obviously we will have to approach the italian game away from home in a different manner to moldova at home. we have to meet the challenge of each match. smith meeting a number of his squad for the first time brought them together on monday to outline his ideas for improving the nation s fortunes. he said: i pointed out how i see the international team going forward and that was the main topic. this is a relaxed gathering and i don t think there is a lot of doom and gloom about the squad that a lot of people think exists. a 25-man squad will spend the next three days based at the mottram hall hotel in cheshire and will train at manchester united s nearby carrington complex. smith will be absent for the final sessions however as he is due to fly out to sardinia on wednesday to watch italy s friendly with russia. | entertainment | 2 |
kennedy questions trust of blair lib dem leader charles kennedy has said voters now have a fundamental lack of trust of tony blair as prime minister. he said backing his party was not a wasted vote adding that with the lib dems what you see is what you get . he made his comments at the start of a day of appearances on channel five in a session on the wright stuff programme. questions from callers a studio audience and the show s presenter covered lib dem tax plans anti-terror laws and immigration. mr kennedy said during his nearly 22 years in parliament he had seen prime ministers and party leaders come and go and knew the pitfalls of british politics. 1983 was when i was first elected as an mp - so tony blair michael howard and myself were all class of 83 - and over that nearly quarter of a century the world has changed out of recognition he said. we don t actually hear the argument any longer: lib dems good people reasonable ideas but only if we thought they could win around here - it s a wasted vote . you don t hear that because the evidence of people s senses demonstrates that it isn t a wasted vote. but he said mr blair had lost the trust of the british people. there is a fundamental lack of trust in tony blair as prime minister and in his government he said. what we ve got to do as a party - what i ve got to do as a leader of this party - is to convey to people that what you see is what you get. mr kennedy also used his tv appearance to defend his party s plans to increase income tax to 50% for those earning more than £100 000 saying it would apply to just 1% of the population. he said the extra revenue would allow his party to get rid of tuition and top-up fees introduce free personal care for the elderly and replace the council tax with a local income tax. mr blair has already spent a day with five and michael howard is booked for a similar session. | world | 2 |
green reports shun supply chain nearly 20% more uk top 250 firms produced non-financial reports on social and environment issues than last year. but of the 145 companies reporting 76% didn t examine their supply chains says the annual directions survey. green groups say putting pressure on supply chains is a major way companies can reduce their environmental impact. the survey is published by corporate social responsibility firm context and branding firm salterbaxter. blake lee-harwood campaigns director at greenpeace in the uk said: it s fairly meaningless to talk about your company s direction in terms of sustainability without having detailed knowledge of your supply chain. it s also important to get some kind of independent assessment of your reporting. less than a quarter of companies (24%) get their corporate social responsibility (csr) reports independently verified to provide assurances they are accurate and complete says the survey. to date there are no set standards for non-financial reporting although the global reporting initiative an independent pro-sustainability institution is planning to establish some. the reports surveyed by directions are published voluntarily. they are usually called corporate social responsibility (csr) reports sustainability reports or social and environmental reports. peter knight director of context says 24 uk top 250 companies reported for the first time this year and in general the quality of reports has improved. the corporate lexicon of homilies generalities and soft assurances - fluff - is on its way out. there are less pictures of smiling children and butterflies. the uk government will soon require all quoted companies to report their social and environmental risks in a chapter in their annual reports called the operating and financial review. the regulation is not expected until 2005 and the first reports under this scheme will not be published before 2006. the us seems to lag europe in producing corporate social responsibility reports. the majority of european top 50 companies (44) publish them and only 27 of the us top 50. | science and tech | 2 |
uk directors guild nominees named martin scorsese and clint eastwood are among the nominees for the top prize at the directors guild of great britain awards now in their second year. the oscar rivals will compete for the international film prize at the ceremony to be held at the curzon mayfair cinema in london on 20 march. other nominees include bill condon for kinsey and michel gondry for eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. mike leigh s vera drake is among the nominees for best british film. the awards will see eastwood and scorsese once again competing for the directing prize following last weekend s oscars. clint eastwood won best director for million dollar baby beating scorsese who was nominated for a fifth time for the howard hughes biopic the aviator. mike leigh will compete for the british film prize with shane meadows for dead man s shoes roger michell for enduring love and my summer of love director pawel pawlikowski. nominees for best foreign film include spain s pedro almodovar for bad education and hong kong director wong kar-wai for 2046. in the tv categories comedy series early doors and the alan clark diaries will compete for the best directing award for a 30-minute television show while the directors of shameless hustle and bodies are all nominated for the 60-minute television prize. the directors of omagh and sex traffic are among the nominees for a television movie or mini-series. american beauty s sam mendes will receive a lifetime achievement award for his work in film and theatre while theatre director simon mcburney will be given an award for outstanding directorial achievement. | entertainment | 0 |
lewis-francis turns to christie mark lewis-francis has stepped up his preparations for the new season by taking advice from british sprint icon linford christie. the 22-year-old is set to compete at sheffield this weekend and will then take on maurice greene and kim collins in birmingham on 18 february. training in wales and getting advice from linford christie is broadening my mind said lewis-francis. the sprinter has also shed weight since winning relay gold at the athens games. last year i was 91kg now i am 86.9kg - hopefully my times will come down he said. this has been brought about by eating the right foods and cutting out the snacks. it is just discipline and being more focused about what i am doing. i am still keeping up my weights work and i can see the improvement in my running. despite playing his part in britain s successful 4x100m relay team lewis-francis still feels the frustration of missing out on the individual 100m final at the 2004 olympics. that was heartbreaking but i had made it to the semi-final and for me on a personal level that was an achievement. i just have to be patient and build up for the next olympics. that is my goal and whatever i do between now and then will be geared to making the final. | sports | 0 |
dvd review: i robot only one man recognises that robots are a threat to humanity - but that s fine because it only takes one man to save the day in the thriller i robot. will smith co-stars alongside more cgi robots than you can count and as a thrill-a-minute kind of action film it s perfectly adequate. you ll have forgotten it all tomorrow but you ll have a fun night with the film and all the extras. there is a one-disc version that has commentaries and a making of but the two-disc adds more. unusually for this kind of film the extras don t solely concentrate on the special effects. they re covered but there s also a general production diary and a post-production feature. remember the national lottery s draw machines arthur and guinevere they were more accurate than this glossy hollywood version of the tale. but as long as you re not expecting a documentary live with it: king arthur is a fun exciting totally shallow experience and looks excellent. clive owen is the brooding king keira knightly rises above her costume and ray winstone gives it all some grit. it s at its best in its battle scenes which are well done and are also the best part of the making of extra. less flashy than a david attenborough show and less detailed than a simon schama one the bbc series british isles nevertheless turned out to be quite engrossing. admit it the fact that this is one of the shows alan titchmarsh left ground force to present did mean that you expected something equally frothy. but titchmarsh turns out to know his subject and the sight of our present-day landscape being peeled back to reveal the past was fascinating. he s now written an accompanying book too. | entertainment | 0 |
d arcy injury adds to ireland woe gordon d arcy has been ruled out of the ireland team for saturday s six nations clash against scotland in murrayfield. like skipper brian o driscoll d arcy failed to recover from a hamstring injury. the side will now be led by munster lock paul o connell. shane horgan switches from wing to centre where he will be joined by ulster s kevin maggs. girvan dempsey comes into the team to take the right wing spot while gavin duffy is called up to the replacements. we gave gordon a chance but it didn t work out said ireland coach eddie o sullivan. in terms of the risk element it was a sensible precaution. he should be fine for the next game but we do not want to tempt fate. maggs who will win his 67th cap was the obvious replacement at centre while shane horgan was always likely to be moved from the wing. the only other change to the ireland side from last weekend s win in rome sees wasps flanker johnny o connor replacing denis leamy. o connor will be winning his third cap after making his debut in the victory over south africa last november. : murphy dempsey horgan maggs hickie o gara stringer corrigan byrne hayes o kelly o connell capt s easterby o connor foley. : sheahan horan o callaghan miller g easterby humphreys duffy. | politics | 2 |
lib dems bold election policy charles kennedy has told voters his liberal democrats will offer them an honest choice at the next general election. with the other two big parties battling over which will impose the lowest taxes mr kennedy is going into the looming election pledged to increase taxation. it is a bold policy and certainly ensures there is that choice between the lib dems and the other two. with his party s previous pledge to increase taxes by one penny in the pound to spend on public services already adopted by the government he has switched tack. now he is promising to levy a modest increase of the same amount on earnings over £100 000 a year to allow him to finance a series of pledges. they are to scrap student fees finance free long term care for the elderly and replace the council tax with a local income tax. that last policy will also see about 3% of the most well off paying more while others pensioners in particular will pay less. labour and the tories have attacked his policies as both unworkable and not properly costed. inevitably they insist there is no need to raise taxes to fund improvements in services. the tories claim they can improve services and cut taxes through £35bn efficiency savings while labour has offered £22bn savings but has yet to map out precise tax proposals although there is little chance they will propose increases. in many ways the argument between the lib dems and the others over taxation and spending echo the sort of arguments that raged between labour and the tories in the 1980s and early 1990s. but unlike the old tory-labour debate he believes voters are ready to see modest tax increases on the well off in order to fund improvements in services. that is a view partly endorsed by recent polls suggesting people would rather have cash spent on public services than tax cuts. similarly there is a different tone to the lib dem approach to asylum and immigration with mr kennedy stressing politicians should not foment an artificial debate about immigration and attacking michael howard s proposals for quotas. once again with the two other big parties singing similar songs on immigration mr kennedy is stressing the different more liberal approach of his party. mr kennedy was also in buoyant mood over his party s election chances declaring the tories were not going to be significant players in the poll. he repeated his pledge not to do post-election deals with either party after the election. mr kennedy went on to suggest the re-election of a labour government with a small majority would amount to a massive vote of no confidence in tony blair s government. that suggests the lib dem leader believes he may well find himself in a powerful even pivotal position in a vastly different house of commons after the next election. it is a dream the third party has dreamed many times before. | politics | 0 |
half-life 2 sweeps bafta awards pc first person shooter half-life 2 has won six bafta awards including best game and best online game. the title developed by valve was released last year to universal acclaim - receiving special praise for its immersive plot and physics engine. the game also won baftas for best action adventure best pc game art direction and animation. burnout 3 won three awards in the categories for racing technical direction and best playstation 2 game. grant dean chairman of the bafta games awards said at a ceremony in london on tuesday: the last year has been a great year for the interactive entertainment industry. these awards reflect the enormous achievements progress and diversity that we have seen in that time. halo 2 won the best xbox game category while prince of persia: warrior within was adjudged the best gamecube title. the sports award went to konami s pro evolution soccer 4. bafta said the significant feature of this year s awards was the number of non-traditional games . the originality award was won by playstation 2 title singstar while the children s award went to gamecube bongo rhythm game donkey konga. the handheld award went to colin mcrae rally 2005 while the mobile category was won by blue tooth byplanes. the audio award was won by call of duty: finest hour and hitman: contracts won the music award. | science and tech | 0 |
indonesians face fuel price rise indonesia s government has confirmed it is considering raising fuel prices by as much as 30%. millions of indonesians use kerosene for basic cooking and prices have been heavily subsidised for years. president susilo bambang yudhoyono s government has said it wants to curb fuel subsidies and direct the money into aid programmes for the poor. but critics argue cutting subsidies will hurt the poorer families that his government says it wants to help. millions of people were left homeless in indonesia aceh s region following the earthquake and tsunami disaster in late december. indonesia pays subsidies to importers in order to stabilise domestic fuel prices but higher oil prices have forced the government to spend more on holding prices down. it spent 59.2 trillion rupiah ($6.58bn; £3.5bn) on fuel subsidies in 2004 a sum far in excess of its original projection of 14.5 trillion rupiah. since president yudhoyono s government came to power in october it has indicated its intention of raising domestic fuel prices by cutting subsidies. the (january to march) quarter of this year is the best time for us to increase fuel prices said sri mulyani indrawati state minister for national development planning. we are still considering if a 30% hike is suitable at the moment. the sooner the better for the state budget. the bbc s correspondent in jakarta rachel harvey told world business report that there was likely to be a strong public reaction to any price rise. the big question is whether they go for one big short sharp shock and raise prices between 20% and 30% or whether they try to stagger it she said. indonesia s previous government led by president megawati sukarnoputri also attempted to cut subsidies in 2003 but was forced to back down in the face of public protests. | business | 0 |
lib dems demand new inquiry a judge should look into the david blunkett controversy as key questions remain unanswered the lib dems say. sir alan budd s inquiry linked the ex-home secretary to the speeding up of a visa claim by his ex-lover s nanny. but he could not say whether mr blunkett had treated the nanny as a special case or had used her as an example of immigration problems. lib dem spokesman mark oaten said the number of officials who had forgotten what happened was worrying. he told bbc news: i m extremely concerned that 20 individuals appear to have forgotten what happened or more suspiciously are not prepared to say what happened. that must be bad for government it must be bad for public confidence in the system. mr oaten said people would be mystified why sir alan s inquiry failed to uncover why processing of the visa application was speeded up. he said: there is a strong case for a judge-led judicial review of this because of course next time it happens it may not be about a nanny and their visa. it may be about something even more important than that. so we do need to understand what took place and who was involved. the tories criticised the lib dem stance saying mr oaten had initially said he accepted mr blunkett s word unless further evidence emerged. but lib dem officials say mr oaten was speaking when an inquiry was under way and was avoiding rushing to judgement. | sports | 2 |
hewitt falls to dent in adelaide lleyton hewitt suffered a shock defeat to taylor dent in the quarter-finals of the australian hardcourt championships in adelaide on friday. the top seed was a strong favourite for the title but went down 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 to the american. dent will face juan ignacio chela next after the fourth seed was too strong for jurgen melzer. olivier rochus beat third seed nicolas kiefer 6-7 (4-7) 7-6 (8-6) 7-5 and will take on second seed joachim johansson. the swede reached the last four by beating compatriot thomas enqvist 6-3 4-6 6-1. i felt like i was striking the ball much better said johansson. i felt like i had a lot of break chances i didn t take care of them all but i broke him four times and he only broke me once. i felt that was the key to get up in the set early. hewitt played down his defeat and insisted he is focused solely on the australian open which starts on 17 january. when you ve been number one in the world for a couple of years and won a couple of slams you look at the big picture and what motivates you said hewitt. that s the grand slams and melbourne s as big for me as any of the four. even if i don t win sydney next week it s no big deal. | sports | 0 |
us bank loses customer details the bank of america has revealed it has lost computer tapes containing account details of more than one million customers who are us federal employees. several members of the us senate are among those affected who could now be vulnerable to identity theft. senate sources say the missing tapes may have been stolen from a plane by baggage handlers. the bank gave no details of how the records disappeared but said they had probably not been misused. customers accounts were being monitoring and account holders would be notified if any unusual activity was detected bank officials said. bank of america said the tapes went missing in december while being shipped to a back-up data centre. we with federal law authorities have done a very robust thorough investigation on this and neither we nor they would make the statement lightly that we believe those tapes to be lost alexandra tower a spokeswoman for the north carolina-based bank told time magazine. but although there was no evidence of criminal activity the bank said the secret service - a federal agency whose brief includes investigations of serious financial crime - is said to be looking into the loss. new york senator charles schumer said he was told by the senate rules committee that the tapes were probably stolen from a commercial plane. whether it is identity theft terrorism or other theft in this new complicated world baggage handlers should have background checks and more care should be taken for who is hired for these increasingly sensitive positions the democrat senator said. details of his vermont colleague pat leahy s credit card account are among those missing senator leahy s spokeswoman tracy schmaler said. about 900 000 military and civilian staff at the defence department are among the 1.2 million affected according to a pentagon spokesman. | science and tech | 2 |
zambia confident and cautious zambia s technical director kalusha bwalya is confident and cautious ahead of the cosafa cup final against angola on saturday in lusaka. bwalya said: nothing short of victory will do. however bwalya warned his side not to be too complacent. i don t want my team to be too comfortable or too sure of victory as it is going to be a difficult game. for me the main aim of the game is to enjoy and to win. zambia have shown their determination to win this final by recalling nine of their foreign-based players. however the 41 year-old bwalya who became the oldest player to appear in the competition when he played and scored against mauritius is uncertain whether he will take to the field or not. the chipolopolo fans however are not being so cautious with a victory concert already scheduled for after the match featuring some of the country s top musicians. both sides are hoping to win the competition for a record third time and so keep the trophy for good. the chipolopolo won the first two editions of the regional tournament for southern african nations in 1997 and 1998. they were prevented from a third straight win by angola who knocked out the zambians at the semi-final stage in 1999. that victory for angola also marked a first defeat in 14 years for zambia at lusaka s independence stadium where saturday s game is being played. angola named just four overseas-based players in their preliminary squad. the palancas negras have been unable to secure the release of many of their portugal-based players. | sports | 0 |
xbox 2 may be unveiled in summer details of the next generation of microsoft s xbox games console - codenamed xenon - will most likely be unveiled in may according to reports. it was widely expected that gamers would get a sneak preview of xbox s successor at the game developers conference (gdc) in march. but a microsoft spokeswoman confirmed that it would not be at gdc. sony microsoft and nintendo are all expected to release their more powerful machines in the next 18 months. the next xbox console is expected to go on sale at the end of the year but very few details about it have been released. it is thought that the machine may be unveiled at the electronic entertainment expo (e3) in los angeles which takes place in may according to a reuters news agency report. e3 concentrates on showing off the latest in gaming to publishers marketers and retailers. the gdc is aimed more at game developers. microsoft chief bill gates used the gdc event to unveil the original xbox five years ago. since its launch microsoft has sold 19.9 million units worldwide. at the consumer electronics show earlier this year there was very little mention of the next generation gaming machine. in his keynote speech mr gates only referred to it as playing an essential part of his vision of the digital lifestyle. but the battle between the rival consoles to win gamers hearts and thumbs will be extremely hard-fought. sony has traditionally dominated the console market with its playstation 2. but earlier this year microsoft said it had reached a european milestone selling five million consoles since its european launch in march 2002. hit games like halo 2 which was released in november helped to buoy the sales figures. gamers are looking forward to the next generation of machines because they will have much more processing and graphical power. they are also likely to pack in more features and technologies that make them more central as entertainment and communications hubs. although details of playstation 3 xenon and nintendo s so-called revolution are yet to be finalised developers are already working on titles. rory armes studio general manager for games giant electronic arts (ea) in europe recently told the bbc news website in an interview that ea was beginning to get a sense of the capabilities of the new machines. microsoft had delivered development kits to ea but he said the company was still waiting on sony and nintendo s kits. but he added the playstation 3 was rumoured to have a little more under the hood [than xbox 2] . | politics | 2 |
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. | world | 2 |
tomlinson stays focused on europe long jumper chris tomlinson has cut his schedule to ensure he is fully fit for the european indoor championships. the 23-year-old has a minor injury and has pulled out of international meets in madrid and lievin this week as well as warm-weather training in lanzarote. it s nothing serious said his coach peter stanley. he strained a muscle in his abdomen at the birmingham meeting but is back in full training. sprinter mark lewis-francis will also not compete in madrid on thursday. the birmingham athlete who clocked a season s best of 6.61 seconds over 60m in birmingham last week also prefers to focus his attentions on next month s european indoor championships. lewis-francis who was runner-up to british team-mate jason gardener at the europeans three years ago will continue his training at home. meanwhile tomlinson is still searching for this first major medal and this season he has shown he could be in the sort of form to grab a spot on the podium in madrid. the middlesbrough athlete jumped a season s best of 7.95m at the birmingham grand prix - good enough to push world indoor champion savante stringfellow into second. | world | 2 |
german economy rebounds germany s economy the biggest among the 12 countries sharing the euro grew at its fastest rate in four years during 2004 driven by strong exports. gross domestic product (gdp) rose by 1.7% last year the statistical office said. the economy contracted in 2003. foreign sales increased by 8.2% last year compared with a 0.3% slide in private consumption. concerns remain however over the strength of the euro weak domestic demand and a sluggish labour market. the european central bank (ecb) left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 2% on thursday. it is the nineteenth month in a row that the ecb has not moved borrowing costs. economists predict that an increase is unlikely to come until the second half of 2005 with growth set to sputter rather than ignite. during 2004 we profited from the fact that the world economy was strong said stefan schilbe analyst at hsbc trinkaus & burkhardt. if exports weaken and domestic growth remains poor we cannot expect much from 2005. many german consumers have been spooked and unsettled by government attempts to reform the welfare state and corporate environment. major companies including volkswagen daimlerchrysler and siemens have spent much of 2004 in tough talks with unions about trimming jobs and costs. they have also warned there are more cost cutting measures on the horizon. | science and tech | 2 |
howard denies split over id cards michael howard has denied his shadow cabinet was split over its decision to back controversial labour plans to introduce id cards. the tory leader said his front bench team had reached a collective view after holding a good discussion but admitted it was not an easy issue . he had decided to support the plans as the police said they would help fight terror crime and illegal immigration. the lib dems have pledged to oppose the bill when it is debated next monday. tory sources say senior party figures had argued vociferously against the id card scheme. among those reported to have serious reservations over the strategy were senior shadow cabinet members david davis oliver letwin and tim yeo. but mr howard denied mr yeo his transport and environment spokesman said the plans stink . he also said he was confident shadow home secretary mr davis would set out the position very clearly when he stands up to debate the matter next week. mr howard said the police had said id cards could help them foil a terror bomb plot in which people could lose their lives . he added: when the police say that you have to take them seriously . he acknowledged there were good libertarian arguments against the cards but said the shadow cabinet had weighed up all the conflicting interests before reaching its decision. i don t pretend that it is an easy decision but at the end of the day a decision has to be taken. he also denied he was afraid of looking soft on the issue compared to labour. the conservatives announced their support for the government plans on monday evening. sources within the party told the bbc mr howard had always been in favour of id cards and tried to introduce them when he was home secretary. but the tories insisted they would hold ministers to account over the precise purpose of the scheme. they said they would also press labour over whether objectives could be met and whether the home office would be able to deliver them. and they pledged to assess the cost effectiveness of id cards and whether people s privacy would be properly protected. it is important to remember that this bill will take a decade to come into full effect a spokesman said. lib dem home affairs spokesman mark oaten has branded the id scheme a waste of money and deeply flawed . he said: this has all the signs of michael howard overruling colleagues concerns over id cards. the chairman of the bar council guy mansfield qc warned there was a real risk that people on the margins of society would be driven into the hands of extremists. what is going to happen to young asian men when there has been a bomb gone off somewhere they are going to be stopped. if they haven t [id cards] they are going to be detained. tory ex-minister douglas hogg said he opposed the plans for id cards branding them a regressive step which would intrude into the lives of ordinary citizens without any counterbalancing benefits. he predicted ultimately carrying the cards would become compulsory and that would lead to large numbers of britain s ethnic minorities being stopped by police. | politics | 0 |
blue beat u2 to top france honour irish band u2 have been honoured at france s biggest music awards but were beaten to a prize by boy band blue. u2 received a special achievement prize at the nrj music awards but blue beat them to the international group award. us band maroon 5 was named best new international artist and took the best international song title for this love. more than five million radio listeners voted in the awards. the international male and female prizes went to usher and avril lavigne respectively. collecting his band s award from model naomi campbell at the cannes ceremony u2 frontman bono said in french: i m not from this country but i ll make a little confession to you - it s at the cote d azur i feel at home. hosted by radio group nrj the ceremony featured performances from usher and jennifer lopez who was accompanied by dancers clad in schoolgirl outfits. us pop act black eyed peas picked up the best international album gong for elephunk. singer jenifer also took home two awards for best french female singer and best french album. french-canadian pop star roch voisine was named best francophone male artist. | entertainment | 0 |
llewellyn plans wales retirement wales record cap holder gareth llewellyn will retire from test rugby at the end of the six nations. the veteran lock who is 36 at the end of february told bbc wales scrum v that it is time for him to bring down the curtain on his 92-cap wales career. llewellyn is on a one-season deal with french club side narbonne but said he may consider retiring from all rugby. i don t know what i ll do next year whether to carry on playing or make a change in my career llewellyn said. narbonne are really keen for me to stay on for next year so i ve got to decide whether to stay on there or maybe go somewhere else but ultimitely coaching is where i d like to end up. i ve done all the coaching awards and everything you can do in that respect so it s just hopefully getting a chance somewhere. fellow locks robert sidoli and brent cockbain who both scored tries in saturday s six nations win in italy are wales coach mike ruddock s preferred starters in the second row. with the resurgence of the dragons ian gough and the adaptibility of lock-cum-flanker jon thomas on the bench llewellyn has not yet made a match-day squad this six nations campaign. but the former neath and ospreys player is still targetting one last outing in the red shirt. if i do get on the field then brilliant although the boys are doing really well and i m very pleased for them llewellyn added. we ve had some really tough years in wales and the players have been through a hell of a lot. sometimes the easiest thing would have been to throw the towel in and walk away but a few of us dug in there and it s really nice to see some of the boys getting the rewards now. i was going to retire at the end of the last six nations i d even told some of the boys in the squad about it. but mike (ruddock) asked me to carry on for another season which i ve done still part of the squad still trying to help them out as much as i can. llewellyn made his wales debut in 1989 against new zealand as a 20-year-old having caught the selectors eyes in the all blacks tour match against neath. the 6ft 6in player has not looked back since going on to break neil jenkins wales cap record on 12 june 2004 in the 50-44 loss in argentina. there s been lots of highs - winning the six nations in 94 beating england in 93 i ve been on some great tours and seen some fantastic countries llewellyn said. but i think the best thing of all for me was the time i spent with the players i ve met some great guys in rugby and made some great friends. it ll be a bit strange on international days having to find somewhere to watch wales play but at least i might have time to get my golf handicap down! llewellyn captained neath for seven seasons while being an integral part of the neath-swansea ospreys regional side s first season. but with the ospreys building for the future llewellyn was eventually forced to look to france for employment - digging in his heels during contract negotiations to insist he must be allowed to play for wales. | business | 2 |
economy stronger than forecast the uk economy probably grew at a faster rate in the third quarter than the 0.4% reported according to bank of england deputy governor rachel lomax. private sector business surveys suggest a stronger economy than official estimates ms lomax said. other surveys collectively show a rapid slowdown in uk house price growth she pointed out. this means that despite a strong economic growth base rates will probably stay on hold at 4.75%. official data comes from the office for national statistics (ons). though reliable ons data takes longer to publish so now the boe is calling for faster delivery of data so it can make more effective policy decisions. recent work by the bank has shown that private sector surveys add value even when preliminary ons estimates are available ms lomax said in a speech to the north wales business club. the ons is due to publish its second estimate of third quarter growth on friday. the mpc judges that overall growth was a little higher in the third quarter than the official data currently indicate ms lomax said. the bank said successful monetary policy depends on having good information. rachel lomax cited the late 1980s as an example of a time when weak economic figures were published but substantially revised upwards years later. the statistical fog surrounding the true state of the economy has proved a particularly potent breeding ground for policy errors in the past she said. improving the quality of national statistics is the single the best way of making sure the monetary policy committee (mpc) makes the right decisions she said. the bank of england is working in tandem with the ons to improve the quality and speed of delivery of data. her remarks follow criticism from the house of lords economic affairs committee which said the mpc had held interest rates too high given that inflation was way below the 2% target. a slowdown in the housing market and this year s surge in oil prices has made economic forecasting all the more tricky leading to a more uncertain outlook. this year rising oil prices and a significant slowdown in the housing market have awoken bad memories of the 1970s and 1980s ms lomax said. the mpc will be doing well if it can achieve the same stability over the next decade as we have enjoyed over the past 10 years. decisions on interest rates are made after the mpc gathers together the range of indicators available every month. the clearest signals come when all indicators are pointing the same direction ms lomax intimated. in economic assessment there is safety in numbers. | business | 0 |
christmas song formula unveiled a formula for the ultimate christmas single has been revealed by chart bible british hit singles and albums. the recipe includes a reference to father christmas sleigh bells a children s choir and a charity element. the song should also include christmas in the title wishes for peace on earth and lots of airplay at office parties. there are common musical elements linking nearly all the big christmas number ones of recent times said editor david roberts. the book s analysts commissioned chart prank group moped to create the first christmas single using the whole formula - the song is called gonna have a no 1 this christmas by moped vs santa. everybody says that christmas number ones are formulaic but gonna have a number one this christmas is the first song to crack the formula and combine all these elements into one ultimate christmas track said mr roberts. surprisingly there s no santa listed among the 8 000 top 75 chart performers in the book so this is our chance to help santa to his rightful place in british recording history. big festive hits over the years include band aid s do they know it s christmas slade s merry christmas everybody wham s last christmas and sir cliff richards mistletoe and wine. band aid 20 s remake of do they know it s christmas is set to be confirmed as number one in the charts on sunday. | entertainment | 0 |
mps demand budget leak answers ministers have been asked to explain how budget details were printed in a london newspaper half an hour before gordon brown made his speech. the tories said a large chunk of the budget appeared to have been leaked in what they describe as a serious breach of treasury confidentiality . the lib dems called for commons leader peter hain to make a statement and said chancellors had resigned over leaks. they were told it would be brought to speaker michael martin s attention. in the commons tory frontbencher andrew tyrie mp demanded an immediate ministerial statement about how measures had been clearly or at least apparently leaked to the evening standard . raising a point of order he said it was the latest in a long line of discourtesies to this house as well as a breach of confidentiality. he said: i can only hope it is unintentional. if it were planned it would be a very grave matter indeed. a previous labour chancellor resigned after he leaked the budget. hugh dalton resigned after leaking details of his 1947 budget to journalist john carvel who published them in a london newspaper just minutes before they were announced to the house of commons. liberal democrat david laws said it was a very serious matter and said mr hain should make a statement on thursday. deputy speaker sylvia heal agreed it was of concern but said nothing could be done immediately but the issue would be brought to mr martin s attention. | business | 2 |
queen recruit singer for new tour the remaining members of rock band queen are to go on tour next year with former free and bad company singer paul rodgers taking freddie mercury s place. guitarist brian may has said he expects to be on the road with rodgers and drummer roger taylor from april. may said: suddenly the queen phoenix is rising again from the ashes and will take precedence over... our lives. queen have played with many different singers since mercury s death in 1991 but have reportedly not toured. may performed with rodgers at a concert to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the fender stratocaster guitar in london in september. we were both so amazed at the chemistry that was going on in [free hit] all right now that suddenly it seems blindingly obvious that there was something happening here may wrote on his website. they teamed up again for a concert to mark their induction into the uk music hall of fame and were joined by taylor. the show went so incredibly well from our point of view and we got so many rave reactions from out there we decided almost then and there that we would look at a tour together may wrote. queen went to number one in 2000 with a version of we will rock you sung by boy band 5ive and they have also played with robbie williams will young and bob geldof. queen bassist john deacon has currently retired from the stage. rodgers was singer with early 1970s rockers free who had a global hit with all right now before forming bad company a successful supergroup with members of king crimson and mott the hoople. he has also been in the firm with led zeppelin s jimmy page and the law with the small faces and the who drummer kenny jones. | entertainment | 0 |
sales fail to boost high street the january sales have failed to help the uk high street recover from a poor christmas season a survey has found. stores received a boost from bargain hunters but trading then reverted to december levels the british retail consortium and accountants kpmg said. sales in what is traditionally a strong month rose by 0.5% on a like-for-like basis compared with a year earlier. consumers remain cautious over buying big-ticket items like furniture said brc director general kevin hawkins. higher interest rates and uncertainty over the housing market continue to take their toll on the retail sector the brc said. but clothing and footwear sales were said to be generally better than december while department stores also had a good month. in the three-months to january like-for-like sales showed a growth rate of -0.1% the same as in the three months to december the brc said. following a relatively strong new year s bank holiday trading then took a downward turn said mr hawkins. even extending some promotions and discounts and the pay-day boost later in the month could not tempt customers. the previous brc survey found christmas 2004 was the worst for 10 years for retailers. and according to office for national statistics data sales in december failed to meet expectations and by some counts were the worst since 1981. | business | 0 |
davenport dismantles young rival top seed lindsay davenport booked her place in the last 16 of the australian open with a convincing 6-2 6-4 win over nicole vaidisova of the czech republic. the american had too much power for her 15-year-old opponent breaking twice in the first set and once in the second. the german-born vaidisova rallied well at times but was unable to find a way back after falling behind 3-2 in the opening set. davenport who closed out with an ace plays karolina sprem in the next round. i was fully expecting a tough opponent and was able to play well enough to get through it said davenport. i think she hits some great shots. she made some errors but probably some inexperience played a role in that. but she s so young and obviously has a big game and has many many years to improve on that. sprem the croatian 13th seed saw off russia s elena likhovtseva 6-3 6-2. former world number one powered her way into the fourth round with a straight sets win over anna smashnova. the 27th seed from israel stuck with williams until 3-3 in the first set before it became one-way traffic. the american made 26 unforced errors but was still good enough to romp through the contest in exactly an hour. she reeled off nine straight games to finish a 6-3 6-0 winner. remains on course to become the first australian to win her home title since chris o neil in 1978. the 10th seed equalled her best performance at a grand slam event when she beat unseeded russian nadia petrova 6-3 6-2 to reach the fourth round. after a tough first set molik grew in confidence and won in just 56 minutes. she will now meet venus williams. bring it on said the 23-year-old. i played pretty well and it was nice to get through in straight sets. we were destined to meet i guess williams said referring to her match with molik. it will be a huge match for her in australia. i can tell she s probably very motivated by that so i need to get out there and play well. beat slovakia s daniela hantuchova in a rollercoaster match. dementieva came through 7-5 5-7 6-4 becoming the seventh russian woman to reach the last 16 in melbourne. the match lasted almost three hours and featured 13 service breaks including three in the final set when dementieva held her nerve to seal the win. she now faces after the swiss 12th seed beat american abigail spears 7-6 6-3. french open champion received a free ride into the last 16 after lisa raymond was forced to withdraw. raymond the 25th seeded american was ruled out after sustaining a left abdominal muscle tear in the doubles. myskina the third seed now plays france s who beat francesca schiavone of italy 6-3 6-3. i m extremely disappointed because i couldn t have asked to play better in my first two matches raymond said. | business | 2 |
tories reject rethink on axed mp sacked mp howard flight s local conservative association has insisted he will not be its candidate at the general election. russell tanguay agent for arundel and south downs tories said mr flight was ineligible to be a candidate and the association was seeking a substitute. the news comes despite mr flight s allies saying they had enough support to hold a meeting to discuss his fate. mr flight landed in trouble over remarks on tory tax and spending plans. he quit as tory deputy chairman after apparently suggesting the tories planned extra spending cuts - but he wants to continue as an mp. tory headquarters says he cannot stand as a conservative candidate because he is no longer an approved candidate. mr tanguay backed that view on tuesday saying: howard flight is ineligible to stand as a conservative party candidate. the association is in the process of selecting a new candidate. but the local tory chairman made similar comments on friday and dissent continues. two local councillors who back mr flight met mr tanguay and the local association s chairman in arundel on tuesday afternoon but did not comment as they left the meeting. mr flight says he will not stand down as a candidate unless his local party instructs him to do so at an extraordinary general meeting (egm). the mp who is consulting his lawyers told bbc news: they selected me and they if you like dispose of me or keep me. mr flight s supporters also say they have the 50 signatures needed to trigger the egm. at a news conference mr howard insisted he had played by the party s rules. the tory leader who argues he is ensuring honesty said: we do not say one thing in private and another thing in public. labour election campaign coordinator alan milburn said the tories were in turmoil because mr flight had exposed their hidden plans. the comments were not a one-off he said claiming mr howard and other senior tories were obsessively committed to cutting public spending. liberal democrat chairman matthew taylor said: whilst i disagree with howard flight s views it seems extraordinary to sack somebody for telling the truth. it has also emerged mr howard has suspended slough s constituency conservative association for refusing to deselect its candidate. adrian hilton was abandoned after suggesting the signing of the maastricht treaty under john major s government was an act of treason. the catholic herald also highlighted articles he wrote about the role of catholicism in the european union. mr hilton was chosen to fight the seat after the previous candidate robert oulds was sacked for being pictured with a range of guns and a hunting knife. slough conservative association has now been placed on support status and is being run from conservative campaign headquarters says a senior party spokesman. mr hilton on tuesday said he was considering taking legal action against his deposal. he said the local party had only learned of the final decision on the bbc news website on monday evening. there are people at central office who are behaving like little dictators and seemingly people who are ordinary members are being treated with contempt he said. the party says it did try to contact the local conservative chairman. | politics | 0 |
israeli club look to africa four african players including zimbabwe goalkeeper energy murambadoro are all ready to play for israeli club hapoel bnei sakhnin in the uefa cup. bnei sakhnin are the first arab side ever to play in european competition and will play english premiership side newcastle united in the first round. warriors goalkeeper murambadoro who made a name for himself at the african nations cup finals in tunisia helped bnei sakhnin overcome albania s partizani tirana 6-1 in the previous round. murambadoro moved to israel recently after a brief stint with south african club hellenic. the club won the israeli cup final last season and are based in sakhnin which is near haifa. the club have a strong ethic and are high profile promoters of peace and co-operation within israel. the three other africans at the club are former cameroon defender ernest etchi dr congo s alain masudi and nigerian midfielder edith agoye who had a stint with tunisian side esperance. | business | 2 |
sun offers processing by the hour sun microsystems has launched a pay-as-you-go service which will allow customers requiring huge computing power to rent it by the hour. sun grid costs users $1 (53p) for an hour s worth of processing and storage power on systems maintained by sun. so-called grid computing is the latest buzz phrase in a company which believes that computing capacity is as important a commodity as hardware and software. sun likened grid computing to the development of electricity. the system could mature in the same way utilities such as electricity and water have developed said sun s chief operating officer jonathan schwartz. why build your own grid when you can use ours for a buck an hour he asked in a webcast launching sun s quarterly network computing event in california. the company will have to persuade data centre managers to adopt a new model but it said it already had interest from customers in the oil gas and financial services industries. some of them want to book computing capacity of more than 5 000 processors each sun said. mr schwartz ran a demonstration of the service showing how data could be processed in a protein folding experiment. hundreds of servers were used simultaneously working on the problem for a few seconds each. although it only took a few seconds the experiment cost $12 (£6.30) because it had used up 12 hours worth of computing power. the sun grid relies on solaris the operating system owned by sun. initially it will house the grid in existing premises and will use idle servers to test software before shipping it to customers. it has not said how much the system will cost to develop but it already has a rival in ibm which argues that its capacity on-demand service is cheaper than that offered by sun. | sports | 2 |
ireland 17-12 south africa ronan o gara scored all ireland s points as the home side claimed only their second ever win over south africa on an emotional day at lansdowne road. o gara s first-half try poached after a quick tap-penalty helped the irish to a 8-3 lead at half-time. three further o gara penalties extended ireland s lead to 17-6 as the game entered the final quarter. two percy montgomery penalties set up a frantic finish but ireland held out to claim a famous victory. ireland began strongly and were never led but the match was tense and closely fought throughout. aware of the threat posed by the south africans ireland pressed hard from the outset and played some impressive rugby while searching for a breakthrough. early on denis hickie thought he was in for a try after a delightful backline move but shane horgan s pass was adjudged to have gone forward by referee paul honiss. ireland continued to press and they showed their intent by opting for a line-out in the 19th minute when three straight-forward points were on offer. another south african infringement a minute later led to ireland s first points - o gara took a quick tap-penalty and charged over the opposition line for an irish try. the springboks could feel hard done by as captain john smit had his back to the play when o gara pounced after referee honiss had told the skipper to warn his own players after consistent infringements. stung by the score the south africans almost replied with a try of their own within 60 seconds with geordan murphy s ankle-tap tackle denying a certain try for percy montgomery. however the springboks did win a penalty a minute later which montgomery easily slotted to cut ireland s lead to 5-3. ireland got out of jail when the south africans had a three-to-one overlap near the irish line only to waste the chance. after the sustained springboks pressure the irish produced an attack of their own in the 34th minute which culminated with o gara s clever drop-goal to restore his side s lead to five points which remained the margin at half-time. sustained irish pressure immediately after half-time was rewarded by another o gara penalty. however montgomery responded quickly by slotting over a superb penalty from near the right touchline to cut ireland s lead to five points again. montgomery then burst through the irish defence in the 48th minute and it took a superb girvan dempsey tackle to prevent a try. the south africans suffered a double-blow in the 52nd minute when schalk burger was sin-binned for the second week in a row after killing the ball and o gara punished the transgression by notching another penalty. in the 61st minute hickie was left frustrated by a poor pass from girvan dempsey as a chance to seal the match was wasted. however a late tackle on brian o driscoll enabled o gara to notch another penalty in the 63rd minute which extended ireland s lead to 17-6. however two montgomery penalties had ireland s lead in peril again as the springboks closed to within five points with seven minutes remaining. south africa produced a huge effort in the closing minutes but ireland held on to claim a deserved victory. g dempsey; g murphy b o driscoll (capt) s horgan d hickie; r o gara p stringer; r corrigan s byrne j hayes m o kelly p o connell s easterby j o connor a foley. f sheahan m horan d o callaghan e miller g easterby d humphreys k maggs. : p montgomery; b paulse m joubert de wet barry a willemse j van der westhuyzen; f du preez; o du randt j smit (captain) e andrews b botha v matfield s burger aj venter j van niekerk. : h shimange cj van der linde g britz d rossouw m claassens j de villiers g du toit/j fourie. paul honiss (new zealand) | sports | 0 |
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. | entertainment | 2 |
tough schedule delays elliot show preview performances of the £3m musical billy elliot have been delayed to give the child actors a less arduous rehearsal schedule. director stephen daldry made the decision to re-schedule the previews to protect the young stars. three boys will rotate the demanding role of ballet dancer billy which requires them to sing dance and act. the show s opening night on 12 may at the victoria palace theatre in london remains unaffected by the changes. preview performances will now be held on 14 20 and 27 april. this is one of the most ambitious projects i have been involved with said daldry. the decision has been made to push back our preview performances in order to give our company with a cast including 45 children a little extra time so they are as fully prepared as possible. he added: the young billy elliots in particular making their professional stage debuts in the west end will benefit from a little extra time to familiarise themselves with all aspects of the production. the three boys playing billy are james lomas 15 george maguire 14 and liam mower 12. the other major child parts will also be rotated between young actors. such are the demands of the show that producers set up a stage school in newcastle to train potential stars for the show. child labour laws also mean the young actors can only work for a limited period each week. adult actors in the show include tim healy as billy s father and haydn gwnne as his dance teacher mrs wilkinson. sir elton john has composed the music. daldry directed the successful film version of billy elliot adapted from lee hall s script. both were nominated for oscars alongside julie walters who played billy s teacher. | entertainment | 0 |
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. | world | 2 |
bt offers free net phone calls bt is offering customers free internet telephone calls if they sign up to broadband in december. the christmas give-away entitles customers to free telephone calls anywhere in the uk via the internet. users will need to use bt s internet telephony software known as bt communicator and have a microphone and speakers or headset on their pc. bt has launched the promotion to show off the potential of a broadband connection to customers. people wanting to take advantage of the offer will need to be a bt together fixed-line customer and will have to sign up to broadband online. the offer will be limited to the first 50 000 people who sign up and there are limitations - the free calls do not include calls to mobiles non-geographical numbers such as 0870 premium numbers or international numbers. bt is keen to provide extra services to its broadband customers. people already using bt communicator have found it by far the most convenient way of making a call if they are at their pc said andrew burke director of value-added services at bt retail. as more homes get high-speed access providers are increasingly offering add-ons such as cheap net calls. broadband and telephony are attractive to customers and bt wants to make sure it is in the first wave of services said ian fogg an analyst with jupiter research. bt communicator had a quiet launch in the summer and now bt is waving the flag a bit more for it he added. bt has struggled to maintain its market share of broadband subscribers as more competitors enter the market. reports say that bt has lost around 10% of market share over the last year down from half of broadband users to less than 40%. bt is hoping its latest offer can persuade more people to jump on the broadband bandwagon. it currently has 1.3 million broadband subscribers. | world | 2 |
stormy year for property insurers a string of storms typhoons and earthquakes has made 2004 the most expensive year on record for property insurers according to swiss re. the world s second biggest insurer said disasters around the globe have seen property claims reach $42bn (£21.5bn). 2004 reinforces the trend towards higher losses said swiss re. tightly packed populations in the areas involved in natural and man-made disasters were to partly to blame for the rise in claims it said. some 95% of insurance claims were for natural catastrophes with the rest attributed to made-made events. the largest claims came from the us which was struck by four hurricanes and japan which suffered the highest concentration of typhoons for decades plus a major earthquake. europe suffered fewer natural disasters but 191 people were killed and more than 2 000 injured in march after the terrorist attack on train stations in madrid. the damages claimed in 2004 eclipsed previous years including 2001 when the 11 september attacks pushed claims up to $37bn. swiss re said it had registered about 300 natural and man-made disasters around the world in 2004. twenty-one thousand people lost their lives in the catastrophes with a cost to the global economy of around $105bn (£54bn). | business | 0 |
worldcom ex-boss launches defence lawyers defending former worldcom chief bernie ebbers against a battery of fraud charges have called a company whistleblower as their first witness. cynthia cooper worldcom s ex-head of internal accounting alerted directors to irregular accounting practices at the us telecoms giant in 2002. her warnings led to the collapse of the firm following the discovery of an $11bn (£5.7bn) accounting fraud. mr ebbers has pleaded not guilty to charges of fraud and conspiracy. prosecution lawyers have argued that mr ebbers orchestrated a series of accounting tricks at worldcom ordering employees to hide expenses and inflate revenues to meet wall street earnings estimates. but ms cooper who now runs her own consulting business told a jury in new york on wednesday that external auditors arthur andersen had approved worldcom s accounting in early 2001 and 2002. she said andersen had given a green light to the procedures and practices used by worldcom. mr ebber s lawyers have said he was unaware of the fraud arguing that auditors did not alert him to any problems. ms cooper also said that during shareholder meetings mr ebbers often passed over technical questions to the company s finance chief giving only brief answers himself. the prosecution s star witness former worldcom financial chief scott sullivan has said that mr ebbers ordered accounting adjustments at the firm telling him to hit our books . however ms cooper said mr sullivan had not mentioned anything uncomfortable about worldcom s accounting during a 2001 audit committee meeting. mr ebbers could face a jail sentence of 85 years if convicted of all the charges he is facing. worldcom emerged from bankruptcy protection in 2004 and is now known as mci. last week mci agreed to a buyout by verizon communications in a deal valued at $6.75bn. | politics | 2 |
will the budget bring out smiling voters as tory spokesman oliver letwin said - any chancellor would use his pre-election budget to offer some vote winning sweeteners wouldn t he. and everyone does indeed expect gordon brown to do just that in his last budget before the expected polling day of 5 may. there will be plenty of talk about taking no risks with the economy or handing out irresponsible giveaways. but mr brown will stun westminster and break just about every historical precedent if he fails to do something designed to put a smile on voters faces and make them more inclined to back labour in the election. and there has already been speculation about possible tax reductions for the poorest and increasing the threshold on stamp duty in this week s budget. the aim of his package will be to keep any disillusioned core labour voters in the fold while ensuring the middle england voters who gave tony blair two election victories don t desert him at the third poll. and needless to say there will be plenty of analysis of what impact the budget will have on mr brown s own ambitions to replace mr blair as prime minister at some point after a third win. but there is a shadow hanging over this pre-election performance - in the shape of £11 billion or thereabouts. that is the size of the financial black hole the tories backed by some independent forecasters believe mr brown will have to fill with tax increases after the election. the opening shot in that battle was fired at the weekend with claims a treasury leak suggested mr brown was ready to slap capital gains tax on home sales to raise some of that cash. it was immediately denied but the tories remain suspicious claiming that as mr letwin said if the money does not come from there where will it come from. mr brown will undoubtedly claim the forecasts are simply wrong and that he will have absolutely no need to raise taxes after the election should labour win. previous gloomy forecasts proved wrong he will argue while suggesting that only by sticking with him can britain continue to have a sound economy low unemployment and high public spending. the opposition will reject that by claiming they can keep the economy sound increase spending and cut taxes at the same time. the liberal democrats will also promise to run a sound economy but based on increased taxes to fund spending and amongst other things abolishing the council tax in favour of a local income tax. and there will be prolonged argument over which of the parties can make the greatest savings in whitehall and beyond to fund their policies. but probably what that all boils down to is a simple question of which of the parties the voters most trust to keep the economy stable and avoid any unpleasant surprises in the coming years. and it is probably still the answer to that one question that will overwhelmingly decide the outcome of the general election. | world | 2 |
eu software patent law delayed controversial new eu rules for the patenting of computer-based inventions have been put on hold due to a last minute intervention from poland. poland - a large and therefore crucial eu member - has requested more time to consider the issue especially as it relates to the patenting of software. critics say the law would favour large companies over small innovative ones. they say it could have massive ramifications for developments such as open source software. polish ministers want to see the phrasing of the text of the directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions changed so that it excludes the patenting of software. the planned law has ignited angry debate about whether the eu should allow the patenting of computer programs and internet business methods as currently happens in the us. so for instance us-based amazon.com holds a patent on one-click shopping . critics claim the law which the eu says is needed to harmonise with the us is little more than a law on ideas. patent rights it is claimed protect inventors but in this case it is exclusively the interests of the big companies that are protected eva lichtenberg a austrian green member of the european parliament said in a statement. smaller innovative firms cannot afford the patenting and legal costs that the directive would inflict on them she added. the european parliament has already clashed with the european union on the issue and there have been accusations that the process to decide the issue has been undemocratic. the directive has been subject to several previous delays. | science and tech | 0 |
jamelia s return to the top r&b star jamelia had three brit nominations to go with her triple triumph at last year s mobo awards. the birmingham-born singer full name jamelia davis was signed to a record label at the age of 15 and released her first single so high at 18. she released four number ones from her 2000 album drama including the top five hit money featuring the vocals of reggae artist beenie man. she racked up five mobo nominations in 2000 winning one for best video. but in the same year she also fell pregnant and decided to take a break from music to bring up her daughter teja who was born in march 2001. while she originally planned to get back to work pretty swiftly after giving birth it was actually two years before she released another single. during her absence r&b music exploded and a whole host of female artists were on the scene meaning jamelia had to once again prove herself. her comeback song bout featuring rah digga only just scrapped into the top 40. it was her next single superstar that really put her back on the map as one of britain s most popular female r&b singers holding her own in a music scene dominated by us artists such as beyonce and ashanti. superstar was followed by thank you winner of best single at the 2004 mobos which reached number two in the uk charts. the autobiographical song which deals with domestic abuse hit number one in new zealand and australia. next came the song see it in a boy s eyes which was especially written for her by coldplay s chris martin. his involvement with the song meant not only was it given massive publicity but it was also greeted favourably by a new audience who would not usually listen to r&b. she now combines singing with modelling and supporting charities including the nspcc and make trade fair. despite her huge success in recent years jamelia remains down-to-earth about her fame and her chances of lasting in the fickle music business partly due to motherhood. when i first got into the industry i d be away from home for months at a time. but now i have other things in my life. i still want to make it but it s not the end of the world if i don t commented jamelia. | science and tech | 2 |
de niro completes box office coup robert de niro has completed a transatlantic box office double by topping the uk and us film charts with two different films at the same time. comedy sequel meet the fockers in which he stars with ben stiller dustin hoffman and barbra streisand shot to the top of the uk chart at the weekend. it took £7.2m in three days - eight times more than the number two closer. assault on precinct 13 was in third. at the same time us audiences were won over by his new thriller hide and seek. in meet the fockers he picks up the role of an uptight father and ex-cia agent from 2000 hit comedy meet the parents. it is a big leap to his role in hide and seek a supernatural horror in which he plays a widower whose daughter s imaginary friend turns nasty. in the uk box office chart meet the fockers pushed closer off the top spot while police action movie assault on precinct 13 starring rapper ja rule made £750 000 in its first weekend. london underground thriller creep was another new entry at six while quirky comedy sideways which got five oscar nominations last week entered in eighth place. the oscar nominations do not seem to have had an impact on fans choices at cinemas. leading contenders the aviator million dollar baby and ray all suffered substantial drops in takings compared with the previous weekend. | politics | 2 |
hunt demo at labour meeting pro-hunt supporters are set to protest at labour s spring conference. the countryside alliance says it expects up to 4 000 supporters to demonstrate against the hunting ban. they have agreed to keep to a demonstration site on the other side of the river tyne from the conference venue in gateshead. a bid to overturn the law banning hunting with dogs in england and wales has begun in the court of appeal. the ban comes into force on 18 february. the court of appeal is expected to rule early next week on whether the alliance s challenge has succeeded. richard dodd regional director of the countryside alliance said he expected between 2 000 and 4 000 supporters in tyneside to make their protest with hunt horns and placards. campaigners have been asked not to bring any animals or alcohol. mr dodd said he did not believe there would be any repeat of the trouble which marred the pro-hunt demonstration outside parliament in september. we are holding a static demonstration just to remind labour that we are not going away he said. northumbria police said the pedestrian millennium bridge by the demonstration site will be shut if necessary. but assistant chief constable david warcup has liaised with several protest groups and said all negotiations had gone well. fathers 4 justice pensioners rights activists and stop the war campaigners were also expected to demonstrate during the three-day conference which starts on friday. pro-hunt campaigners claims the 1949 parliament act - which extends the right of the house of commons to overrule the house of lords - was itself invalid because it was never passed by peers. the high court last month ruled the act was valid and the proposed hunting ban was lawful. pro-hunt supporters formally launched their second legal challenge to the ban in london s high court on thursday. the countryside alliance has lodged papers seeking a judicial review on human rights grounds. animal welfare groups have welcomed the ban many of whom have campaigned for a ban for decades saying hunting is cruel and unnecessary. | entertainment | 2 |
eu rules won t stop uk spending the shape of the uk s economy in graphics but he denied that he was ruling out british membership of the euro despite saying there would be no assessment of the five economic tests this year. mr brown said that it was vital the uk continued to invest in infrastructure science and education in the future. otherwise it would be overtaken by the likes of china he told mps. the chancellor said that the eu s planned changes in the growth and stability pact - designed to ensure that countries in the euro zone do not borrow too much - would force britain to run a budget surplus of 1% over the economic cycle. under mr brown s rules the uk current budget must be in balance over the economic cycle but public investment is not counted as part of that deficit. he told the house of commons treasury select committee that the eu rules make it difficult for a low debt country to run the investment programmes that are necessary to improve its infrastructure . but he argued that the eu was moving in the direction of the uk principles and would eventually recognise the need to consider budget deficits over a longer period than one year to include investment and to take more account of the total size of government debt as well as the balance each year. under mr brown s sustainable investment rule government debt should be under 40% - in contrast to the 60% allowed under the growth and stability pact. mr brown vigorously denied conservative claims that he had in effect fiddled the figures to ensure that he met his own fiscal rules. in march the office of national statistics (ons) reclassified £3.4bn of spending on road repairs as public investment - shortly before the chancellor announced in the budget that he would meet his own fiscal budget rule by only £6bn. conservative michael fallon asked mr brown whether the treasury had leaned on ons to make this change and said that the ons had received a written paper from the treasury on this matter. but the chancellor said mr fallon was impugning the integrity of the office of national statistics and said the decision had been made completely independently. mr brown also denied that he was increasing taxes to fund his spending gap. he told the treasury select committee that a growing economy meant more people in work and more profits for companies which would boost treasury coffers. earlier ex-conservative chancellor ken clarke welcomed a relaxation of the rules governing the euro zone. speaking on radio 4 s today programme mr clarke said political give and take would replace more rigid rules. but fellow tory david heathcoat-amory said the folly of the system was in trying to run europe s varied economies on one set of rules. the essential point here is that the stability and growth pact has turned out to be a fake he said. the warning is about the european constitution which we are going to have a vote on in a year or two and that centralises and entrenches these rules in a constitution. it gives more powers to brussels to co-ordinate things like employment and economic policy. but speaking to the treasury select committee gordon brown said that the new stability pact rules were not part of a binding treaty and could be changed again the future - potentially opening the way for future euro membership. the conditions for euro entry are unchanged by this new decision about the stability and growth pact mr. brown said. | world | 2 |
soderling wins tense milan final fifth seed robin soderling took the milan indoors title with a dramatic win over radek stepanek in sunday s final. the 20-year-old swede edged the final set tie-break for a 6-3 6-7 (2-7) 7-6 (7-5) victory and his second tour title after winning in lyon last year. i m delighted to have won against such a good opponent in a tournament of this importance said soderling. i was really on form my service was good and i really liked playing on the synthetic surface. soderling the world number 37 shrugged off a nervous start to take the opening set on his first set point. a change in approach from fourth seed stepanek in the second set paid dividends as he took it on a tie-break but soderling s superior power proved too much in the third. | sports | 0 |
bbc web search aids odd queries the bbc s online search engine was used a record amount in 2004 helping with enquires both simple and strange. more than 277 million enquiries were made asking for informaton of a wide range of subjects. the most requested search terms of 2004 included games eastenders cbbc john peel harry potter and olympics. but there were many strange enquiries including: what is a dog how do you say basketball and what is the biggest collection of naval fluff the search engine works by matching key words typed in to different web pages but many people still type in natural language questions. here are some of the strangest queries of 2004 - spelling and grammar errors left untouched - and their possible solutions: - how to fold a serviette like an elf s boot - how do i structure a french letter - what is better one long vacation each year or several short vacations throughout the year - what is so special about the swiss - what are the contemporary issue in nurses - what is the number 4 in this number 40052308090 - what is up - what is the name of james martin s dog search engines are key to the way people use the internet. companies such as google have become of paramount importance as they dictate how people travel through websites while online. | sports | 2 |
italy 8-38 wales wales secured their first away win in the rbs six nations for nearly four years with a six-try victory in rome. tries from jonathan thomas tom shanklin and martyn williams gave the visitors a 19-5 half-time advantage. luciano orquera did reply with one for italy but second-half efforts from brent cockbain shane williams and robert sidoli sealed victory. fly-half stephen jones added four conversions as wales maintained their superb start to this year s tournament. starting full of confidence after their victory over england the visitors scored the opening try after just four minutes. diminutive wing shane williams fielded a kick ahead and danced past the onrushing andrea masi and aaron persico into the italian half. his pass to tom shanklin appeared forward but when the centre was held up short the ball was switched left and michael owen s long cut-out pass gave the lurking thomas an easy run-in. stephen jones who retained the kicking duties despite gavin henson s heroics against england slotted an excellent conversion from wide out. wales twice threatened further scores but failed to find the crucial pass and italy hit back out of the blue in the 11th minute. henson sporting gold boots rather than the silver variety that did for england beat two players with ease out on the left touchline. but his attempted chip ahead was charged down by orquera who snaffled the loose ball and hared away from halfway to score in the right corner. with the welsh line-out stuttering and italy twice turning the visitors scrum the home side s forward power brought them back into it. but a clever high kick from henson almost brought a try for hal luscombe when roland de marigny and ludovico nitoglia made a hash of claiming it as the ball bounced into touch. wales regained control with a second try in the 21st minute henson lobbing up a high kick to the left corner where shanklin jumped higher than nitoglia to dot down his 15th test try. jones was unable to convert and de marigny then hit the upright with a penalty attempt for italy. henson was also narrowly short with a long-range effort at goal but wales ended the half with a vital third score to give themselves some breathing space. henson sent luscombe streaking away and when he off-loaded to martyn williams the flanker showed his nous to ground the ball against the padding of the post jones adding the conversion. italy who lost flanker mauro bergamasco with a head knock before half-time built up a head of steam on the resumption. de marigny landed a penalty to make it 19-8 and a nitoglia break through the middle threatened a try only for the move to break down with a knock-on. but wales put the outcome beyond doubt with two superb tries in four minutes before the hour. their fourth after 53 minutes was sparked by another mazy run from shane williams who beat several players with ease and finished with a powerful angled run from lock cockbain. before italy could recover from that blow a strong surge from gareth thomas and great off-loads from martyn williams and replacement kevin morgan saw shane williams scamper over. with jones converting both for a 33-8 lead wales had the luxury of sending on five more replacements for the final quarter. the icing on the cake came with a sixth try after more superb support work shane williams and ceri sweeney combining to send sidoli over in the left corner. the only downside for wales was a hamstring injury suffered by luscombe. but after back-to-back wins at the start of the tournament for the first time in 11 years they will travel to paris in a fortnight looking like genuine contenders. r de marigny; mirco bergamasco w pozzebon a masi l nitoglia; l orquera a troncon; a lo cicero f ongaro m castrogiovanni s dellape m bortolami (capt) a persico mauro bergamasco s parisse. g intoppa s perugini ca del fava d dal maso p griffen m barbini kp robertson. g thomas (capt); h luscombe t shanklin g henson s williams; s jones d peel; g jenkins m davies a jones; b cockbain r sidoli; j thomas m williams m owen. r mcbryde j yapp i gough r sowden-taylor g cooper c sweeney k morgan. andrew cole (australia). | sports | 0 |
tv future in the hands of viewers with home theatre systems plasma high-definition tvs and digital video recorders moving into the living room the way people watch tv will be radically different in five years time. that is according to an expert panel which gathered at the annual consumer electronics show in las vegas to discuss how these new technologies will impact one of our favourite pastimes. with the us leading the trend programmes and other content will be delivered to viewers via home networks through cable satellite telecoms companies and broadband service providers to front rooms and portable devices. one of the most talked-about technologies of ces has been digital and personal video recorders (dvr and pvr). these set-top boxes like the us s tivo and the uk s sky+ system allow people to record store play pause and forward wind tv programmes when they want. essentially the technology allows for much more personalised tv. they are also being built-in to high-definition tv sets which are big business in japan and the us but slower to take off in europe because of the lack of high-definition programming. not only can people forward wind through adverts they can also forget about abiding by network and channel schedules putting together their own a-la-carte entertainment. but some us networks and cable and satellite companies are worried about what it means for them in terms of advertising revenues as well as brand identity and viewer loyalty to channels. although the us leads in this technology at the moment it is also a concern that is being raised in europe particularly with the growing uptake of services like sky+. what happens here today we will see in nine months to a years time in the uk adam hume the bbc broadcast s futurologist told the bbc news website. for the likes of the bbc there are no issues of lost advertising revenue yet. it is a more pressing issue at the moment for commercial uk broadcasters but brand loyalty is important for everyone. we will be talking more about content brands rather than network brands said tim hanlon from brand communications firm starcom mediavest. the reality is that with broadband connections anybody can be the producer of content. he added: the challenge now is that it is hard to promote a programme with so much choice. what this means said stacey jolna senior vice president of tv guide tv group is that the way people find the content they want to watch has to be simplified for tv viewers. it means that networks in us terms or channels could take a leaf out of google s book and be the search engine of the future instead of the scheduler to help people find what they want to watch. this kind of channel model might work for the younger ipod generation which is used to taking control of their gadgets and what they play on them. but it might not suit everyone the panel recognised. older generations are more comfortable with familiar schedules and channel brands because they know what they are getting. they perhaps do not want so much of the choice put into their hands mr hanlon suggested. on the other end you have the kids just out of diapers who are pushing buttons already - everything is possible and available to them said mr hanlon. ultimately the consumer will tell the market they want. of the 50 000 new gadgets and technologies being showcased at ces many of them are about enhancing the tv-watching experience. high-definition tv sets are everywhere and many new models of lcd (liquid crystal display) tvs have been launched with dvr capability built into them instead of being external boxes. one such example launched at the show is humax s 26-inch lcd tv with an 80-hour tivo dvr and dvd recorder. one of the us s biggest satellite tv companies directtv has even launched its own branded dvr at the show with 100-hours of recording capability instant replay and a search function. the set can pause and rewind tv for up to 90 hours. and microsoft chief bill gates announced in his pre-show keynote speech a partnership with tivo called tivotogo which means people can play recorded programmes on windows pcs and mobile devices. all these reflect the increasing trend of freeing up multimedia so that people can watch what they want when they want. | sports | 2 |
wolves appoint hoddle as manager glenn hoddle has been unveiled as the new wolves manager. the ex-england coach has been given a six-month contract to succeed dave jones who was sacked after the club s poor start to the season. wolves chairman rick hayward said: we re delighted glenn is here. he has a six-month contract so we can test each other out and see if it works. hoddle who will work alongside stuart gray has been out of the game since he was sacked by spurs in 2003. gray who has been caretaker manager was assistant boss when hoddle was manager at southampton. i m delighted to be here said hoddle. i saw the massive potential that wolves have got and their desire and amibition to get back into the premiership parallels my ambitions. stuart gray has done a fantastic job as caretaker manager. we ve worked together at southampton and i m delighted to be back with him. wolves chief executive jez moxey defended the decision to give hoddle a short-term contract. we hope it will work out for both parties and we extend it for the long term he said. most managers want a four-year contract and then expect it to be paid off if it doesn t work out. for somebody of glenn s calibre to come in on a short-term contract and put his reputation on the line it demonstrates his commitment and self-belief and the potential he thinks is here. hayward revealed that hoddle was one of the first to be approached after jones departure. he was not available at the time because he was looking at various other things he explained. five weeks later we re back on track and this a tremendous opportunity for wolves. hoddle began his managerial career as player-boss with swindon before moving on to chelsea and then taking up the england job. his spell in charge of the national side came to an end after the 1998 world cup when he made controversial remarks about the disabled in a newspaper interview. the 47-year-old later returned to management with southampton where he again succeeded jones - as he has now done at wolves. he engineered an upturn in saints fortunes before being lured to white hart lane by tottenham - the club where he made his name as a player. that relationship turned sour at the start of the last campaign and he left the london club early last season. since then he has applied unsuccessfully for the post of france manager and had also been linked with a return to southampton. wolves are currently 17th in the championship and have a home game against millwall on tuesday. | sports | 0 |
disaster claims less than $10bn insurers have sought to calm fears that they face huge losses after an earthquake and giant waves killed at least 38 000 people in southern asia. munich re and swiss re the world s two biggest reinsurers have said exposure will be less than for other disasters. rebuilding costs are likely to be cheaper than in developed countries and many of those affected will not have insurance analysts said. swiss re has said total claims are likely to be less than $10bn (£5.17bn). swiss re believes that the cost would be substantial but that it is unlikely to be in double-digit billions the financial times reported. munich re the world s largest reinsurance company said that its exposure is less than 100m euros (£70m; $136m). at least 10 countries have been affected with sri lanka indonesia india and thailand among the worst hit. the region s resorts and western tourists are expected to be among the main claimants. lloyds of london told the financial times it expected its exposure to be limited to holiday resorts personal accident travel insurance and marine risks . a spokeswoman for hanover re europe s fifth-largest reinsurance firm estimated tsunami-related damage claims would be in the low double-digit millions of euros. the company has paid out about 300 million euros (£281m; $400m) to cover damage caused recently by four major hurricanes in the us. but insurers have not had long to assess the economic impact of the damage and reports of more casualties and destruction are still coming through. so many things are unclear it is just too early to tell said serge troeber deputy head of swiss re s natural disasters department. you need very complicated processes to estimate damages. unlike the hurricanes you can t just run a model. he anticipated that his own company s total claims would be less then those from the hurricanes which the company put at $640m. allianz a leading german insurer said it did not know yet what its exposure would be. however it said the tidal waves were unlikely to have a significant impact on its business. zurich financial said they could not yet assess the cost of the disaster. the impact on us insurance companies is not expected to be heavy analysts said. most us insurers have relatively little exposure to asia and those that do pass on a lot of the risk to reinsurance companies or special catastrophe funds. insured damage could be a fraction of the billions of dollars worth of destruction in sri lanka india thailand indonesia the maldive islands and malaysia said prudential equity group insurance analyst jay gelb. us insurers are likely to have only minimal to no exposure. it s more likely the bermuda-based reinsurance [companies] might have some exposure said paul newsome an insurance analyst at ag edwards & co. many of the affected countries such as indonesia sri lanka or the maldives do not usually buy insurance for these kinds of disasters said a us-based insurance expert. early estimates from the world bank put the amount of aid needed for the worst affected countries including sri lanka india indonesia and thailand at about $5bn (£2.6bn) similar to the cash offered to central america after hurricane mitch. mitch killed about 10 000 people and caused damage of about $10bn in 1998. but the cost of the tsunamis on the individuals involved is incalculable. we cannot fathom the cost of these poor societies and the nameless fishermen and fishing villages ... that have just been wiped out. hundreds of thousands of livelihoods have gone said jan egeland head of the un office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs. tourists cutting short their holidays in affected areas may suffer a financial impact too. the association of british insurers warned that travel insurance does not normally cover cutting short a holiday. it said loss of possessions will usually be covered but the association stressed the importance of checking the wording of travel policies. | science and tech | 2 |
ferrero eyes return to top form former world number one juan carlos ferrero insists he can get back to his best despite a tough start to 2005. the 2003 french open champion has slipped to 64 in the world after a year of illness and injuries in 2004 but is confident that his form will return. i don t know when it is going to happen ferrero told bbc sport. but i have a lot of confidence in me that i will be the same juan carlos as i was before and very soon. i feel 100% again mentally. the 25-year-old spaniard joins a top field for the abn amro world tennis tournament in rotterdam this week as he looks to add to just two wins in 2005. he opens against rainer schuettler and potentially faces fourth seed david nalbandian in the second round. because i m no longer seeded it s tougher ferrero admitted. i had to play against joachim johansson in the first round last week in marseille. in the past when i was a top seed i would have played a match like that in the quarters or semi-finals. this is the big difference but i have to do it to get higher in the rankings. despite this ferrero insists he is feeling positive after chicken pox and a rib injury destroyed last season. physically i am 100% since december of last year said ferrero. i was working very hard before the davis cup final to prepare and i ve felt 100% from then until now. the difficult moments were when i knew that i had the chicken pox and that it would take two or three months to recover. i had to start from zero again physically because the virus left me at zero per cent. when i started to come back i had my rib broken when i fell on court and that was another two months out. those five months were pretty difficult for me. among the low points of a difficult year for ferrero was the decision of spain captain jordi arrese to drop him for the davis cup final against the usa. it was difficult because i had been playing well for the whole year and the coaches told me that i would play said ferrero. but then i had some problems with my hand two days before the friday matches so they decided to choose nadal instead. it was difficult for me not to be in the friday matches but i had to understand. inside me i wanted to play but this was the decision of the captain and they had to make it. | entertainment | 2 |
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. | world | 2 |
campese berates whingeing england former australian wing david campese has told england to stop whingeing in the wake of their defeat to ireland. england coach andy robinson lambasted referee jonathan kaplan for costing them the game after disallowing tries from mark cueto and josh lewsey. but campese told bbc sport: robinson is living up to england s reputation as whingeing poms. stop going on about it as who really cares they re acting like they re the first team to be cheated of a win. england are contemplating a complaint to the international rugby board after potential tries by cueto in the first half and lewsey late on were ruled out without recourse to the video referee. but campese added: scotland could have beaten france in the same way but do you see them whingeing basically things didn t go england s way and in typical fashion they make more of it when they believe they ve lost unfairly. england are second bottom in the six nations table following defeats by wales france and ireland. but although campese admitted he was surprised about their current predicament he insisted england were no longer world class . england are beginning to realise that being world champions doesn t mean you deserve to win every game he said. they lost a few key players and suddenly everyone s realised the ones on the fringes were not all that good in the first place. added to that the senior players aren t standing up and they can t do anything when the pressure mounts. campese a veteran of 101 international caps said full-back jason robinson would now be the sole englishman in his world xv. robinson has been blamed for poor leadership in the tournament while his coach has been castigated for appointing a full-back captain. i agree that you can t captain from full-back said campese. you need someone in the thick of the action and it s very hard to give orders from all the way back there. some people are leaders and some aren t. he s not but there s no one who stands out in england s pack - no clear-cut leaders. campese though defended coach andy robinson who he believes was the only choice after sir clive woodward s resignation. but he blamed a lack of talent in the england camp for making the current coach look poor. england face a potential wooden spoon match against italy on 12 march. and the ex-wallaby added: if england lost that they d be in bloody turmoil. that said i don t think they will. campese has tipped wales to win both the six nations and grand slam come the end of the tournament. it s been a surprising tournament he said and maybe ireland have a little bit more talent overall. but playing at home is a major boost. and the possible grand slam decider at the millennium stadium will be just too much for the irish. | sports | 0 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.