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wales want rugby league training wales could follow england s lead by training with a rugby league club. england have already had a three-day session with leeds rhinos and wales are thought to be interested in a similar clinic with rivals st helens. saints coach ian millward has given his approval but if it does happen it is unlikely to be this season. saints have a week s training in portugal next week while wales will play england in the opening six nations match on 5 february. we have had an approach from wales confirmed a saints spokesman. it s in the very early stages but it is something we are giving serious consideration to. st helens who are proud of their welsh connections are obvious partners for the welsh rugby union despite a spat in 2001 over the collapse of kieron cunningham s proposed £500 000 move to union side swansea. a similar cross-code deal that took iestyn harris from leeds to cardiff in 2001 did go through before the talented stand-off returned to the 13-man code with bradford bulls. kel coslett who famously moved from wales to league in the 1960s is currently saints football manager while clive griffiths - wales defensive coach - is a former st helens player and is thought to be the man behind the latest initiative. scott gibbs the former wales and lions centre played for st helens from 1994-96 and was in the challenge cup-winning team at wembley in 1996.
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sport
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china aviation seeks rescue deal scandal-hit jet fuel supplier china aviation oil has offered to repay its creditors $220m (£117m) of the $550m it lost on trading in oil futures. the firm said it hoped to pay $100m now and another $120m over eight years. with assets of $200m and liabilities totalling $648m it needs creditors backing for the offer to avoid going into bankruptcy. the trading scandal is the biggest to hit singapore since the $1.2bn collapse of barings bank in 1995. chen jiulin chief executive of china aviation oil (cao) was arrested by at changi airport by singapore police on 8 december. he was returning from china where he had headed when cao announced its trading debacle in late-november. the firm had been betting heavily on a fall in the price of oil during october but prices rose sharply instead. among the creditors whose backing cao needs for its restructuring plan are banking giants such as barclay s capital and sumitomo mitsui as well as south korean firm sk energy. of the immediate payment the firm - china s biggest jet fuel supplier - said it would be paying $30m out of its own resources. the rest would come from its parent company china aviation oil holding company in beijing. the holding company owned by the chinese government holds most of cao s singapore-listed shares. it cut its holding from 75% to 60% on 20 october.
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business
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rock band u2 break ticket record u2 have smashed irish box office records with ticket sales for their dublin concerts after more than 150 000 were sold within 50 minutes. tickets for the two concerts at the city s croke park stadium were released at 8am on friday morning. nothing like it has ever been seen in ireland before said justin green spokesman for organisers mcd promoters. we could have sold a million tickets. the dublin dates on june 24 and 25 form part of the worldwide vertigo tour. the tour begins in san diego on 28 march and will cover 13 us cities. the band will also play 24 european gigs finishing in lisbon in august. mr green said that ticket outlets had been bombarded by u2 fans. unfortunately there s thousands and thousands of disappointed fans all over the country which is disappointing but there s only two dates confirmed he said. many fans camped on the streets of the irish capital for three days to ensure they were first in line at ticketmaster in st stephen s green shopping centre where the tickets went on sale on friday. however the majority of tickets priced at between 59.50 and 80 euro each were sold online. earlier this week bono announced that the band would play two shows at the venue which holds almost 80 000 people due to the phenomenal demand for tickets.
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entertainment
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markets signal brazilian recovery the brazilian stock market has risen to a record high as investors display growing confidence in the durability of the country s economic recovery. the main bovespa index on the sao paolo stock exchange closed at 24 997 points on friday topping the previous record market close reached the previous day. the market s buoyancy reflects optimism about the brazilian economy which could grow by as much as 4.5% in 2004. brazil is recovering from last year s recession - its worst in a decade. economic output declined 0.2% in 2003 and president luiz inacio lula da silva - elected as brazil s first working-class president in 2002 - was strongly criticised for pursuing a hardline economic policy. investors have praised his handling of the economy as foreign investment has risen unemployment has fallen and inflation has been brought under control. analysts believe the stock market will rise above the 25 000 mark for the first time before too long. there should be more space for gains until the end of the year somewhere up to 27 000 points said paschoal tadeu buonomo head of equities trading at brokers tov. brazil s currency the real also rose to its highest level against the dollar in more than two years on friday. although interest rates still stand at a punitive 17.25% inflation has fallen from 9% to 7% while exports are booming particularly of agricultural products. for the first time in decades we have all three economic policy pillars in line during a recovery finance minister antonio palocci told the associated press news agency. government accounts are in surplus we have a current account surplus and inflation is under control. investors were deeply suspicious of president da silva a former trade union leader who campaigned on a programme of extensive land redistribution and a large rise in the minimum wage. however mr da silva has stuck to an orthodox monetary policy inherited from his predecessor even in the face of last year s economic crisis. this has earned him the disapproval of rural farm workers thousands of whom who took to the streets of brasilia on thursday to protest against government policies. president da silva has defended his policies arguing that brazil cannot afford to continue the cycle of boom and bust which afflicted it in recent decades.
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business
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tough rules for ringtone sellers firms that flout rules on how ringtones and other mobile extras are sold could be cut off from all uk phone networks. the rules allow offenders to be cut off if they do not let consumers know exactly what they get for their money and how to turn off the services. the first month under the new rules has seen at least ten firms suspended while they clean up the way they work. the rules have been brought in to ensure that the problems plaguing net users do not spread to mobile phones. in the last couple of years ringtones wallpapers screensavers and lots of other extras for phones have become hugely popular. but fierce competition is making it difficult for firms to get their wares in front of consumers said jeremy flynn head of third party services at vodafone. if you are not on the operator s portal you are going to have quite heavy marketing costs because it s a problem of how people discover your services he said. to combat this many ringtone and other mobile content sellers started using a new tactic to squeeze more cash out of customers. this tactic involved signing people up for a subscription to give them for instance several ringtones per week or month instead of the single track they thought they were getting. mr flynn said that the move to using subscriptions happened over the space of a few weeks at the end of 2004. websites such as grumbletext.co.uk started getting reports from customers who were racking up large bills for phone content they did not know they had signed up for. what made us uncomfortable was that these services were not being marketed transparently said mr flynn. people did not know they were being offered a subscription service. we saw potential for substantial consumer harm here he added. the swift adoption of subscription services led to the creation of a new code of conduct for firms that want to sell content for mobile phones. the drafting of the new rules was led by the mobile entertainment forum and the uk s phone firms. everyone is required to conform to this code of conduct said andrew bud regulatory head of the mef and executive chairman of messaging firm mblox. it s all about transparency he said. consumers have to be told what they have got themselves into and how to get out of it. the consumer has a right to be protected he said. christian harris partnership manager of mobile content firm zed said the new system was essential if consumers were to trust companies that sell ringtones and other downloads. the groundrules must be applied across the whole industry and if that s done effectively we will see the cowboys driven out he said. the new rules came in to force on 15 january and the first month under the new regime has seen many firms cautioned for not honouring them. some have been told to revamp websites so customers know what they get for their money and what they are signing up for said mr flynn. also said mr flynn vodafone has briefly cut off between eight and ten content sellers flouting the rules. we have quite draconian contracts with firms he said. we do not have to say why. we can just cut them off. under the rules consumers must be able to switch off the services by using a universal stop command sent via text message. he said the system had been designed to limit how much a consumer will pay if they inadvertently signed up for a service. the mobile is so personal that people really resent the abuse of what is effectively part of their personality said mr flynn.
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tech
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iraq advice claim sparks new row the tories say ministers must respond in parliament to claims that the legal advice used to justify the iraq war was drawn up at number 10. downing street has denied the claims made in a new book about the attorney general lord goldsmith s advice. lord goldsmith also denied them saying he was not leaned on in any way. but the conservatives and liberal democrats say they want the publication of the full legal advice given by the attorney general. the government has consistently refused to publish lord goldsmith s advice on the legality of the war - saying such papers have always been kept confidential. but a short statement about lord goldsmith s position was presented in a written parliamentary answer on 17 march 2003 - just before a crucial commons vote on the military action. it said it was plain iraq continued to be in material breach of un resolution 1441. in his new book lawless world philippe sands a qc and international law professor suggests the parliamentary answer was written in downing street. according to mr sands lord goldsmith had warned tony blair in a document on 7 march 2003 that the use of force against iraq could be illegal and that it would have been safer to seek a second un resolution sanctioning military action. mr sands told newsnight the government had prepared a legal team to be able to defend its case in case legal action was taken against the uk over the war. on 10 march military chiefs reportedly asked for an unequivocal statement about the legality of the war to make sure troops could be defended in a court of law. the book being serialised in the guardian newspaper says on 13 march lord goldsmith met then home office minister lord falconer and downing street adviser baroness morgan. after that downing street proceeded to set out his [lord goldsmith s] view in a parliamentary answer which was then published on 17 march said mr sands. tory leader michael howard reiterated calls for the publication of the full legal advice given by the attorney general warning: this issue will not go away. these revelations throw an intensive spotlight on to the cavalier way in which this government operates - even on an issue as important as peace and war. the government needs to act to restore public confidence and trust. liberal democrat foreign affairs spokesman menzies campbell repeated his party s calls for lord goldsmith s first piece of legal advice to be made public. the public interest which the government claims justifies non-publication of the whole of the advice can only be served now by the fullest disclosure. in a statement to newsnight lord goldsmith said: in my parliamentary answer on march 17 2003 i explained my genuinely held independent view that military action was lawful under the existing security council resolutions. it was certainly not a view that i expressed as a result of being leaned on in any way nor as i have already made clear was it written by or at number 10. the prime minister s official spokesman also rejected the claims saying: the attorney general made it clear the words and the judgement were his. but ex-foreign secretary robin cook says all the advice should now be published. he said the claims suggested parliament had only received a précis of lord goldsmith s second opinion - and that it was actually drafted in no 10. this would be wrong even if lord goldsmith had signed the statement mr cook said because the attorney general s advice should be an independent legal opinion not subject to political negotiation of this kind .
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politics
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brits debate over urban music joss stone a 17-year-old soul singer from devon beat dizzee rascal jamelia lemar and the streets to win best british urban act at the brit awards. her victory has reignited the debate about what urban music is. i m not really comfortable with the word urban. it s a word that s been manufactured in this country and america to describe black music. the word urban seems to cover such a broad range of black music that it s wrong. how far are the brits removed from inner-city music and what people are doing it s so far removed that i don t expect them to get it bang on. the music industry isn t championing music from our particular genre very well anyway. people don t feel like that s anything to do with us. i don t feel like urban music s just been celebrated by [joss stone] winning or her being nominated or by the brits acknowledging that there s an urban music scene because it s all a kick in the teeth at the end of the day. it s not really relevant. if joss stone is the closest thing that they feel comfortable championing because of what she looks like and how she sounds and who she s signed to then so be it. it s got nothing to do with what s really going on. urban as a genre is very broad. if you look underneath urban there are a number of core elements that include hip-hop r&b garage and into that obviously comes soul. joss stone is a soul artist. her first album was called the soul sessions. so urban is a very broad brushstroke that is the umbrella over the top of sub-genres and there are offshoots of all of those. joss stone has had amazing success [in the us] given that she s a uk artist. what has really captured everybody s imagination is that here you have a 17-year-old from devon with a voice to die for and a bunch of really really good tunes and she looks good - i think that s what s done it. the award for best british urban act was voted for by viewers of mtv base. i don t think joss was not a worthy winner. she makes soul music and that definitely comes under the category of what we describe as urban. the fact that she s from devon is the interesting thing because most of the music we cover is made in large cities and she s literally rural. the great thing about urban music is that there s a big range. if there is some sort of root with black music or dance music in britain i think that s where you can call it urban - that s where this new sub-category or uber-category has come from. joss stone is certainly not old enough to have had some of the experiences of an older soul singer but you couldn t argue that she was being inauthentic with her emotions - it is coming from somewhere genuine. it has to come across as real. that s the only cut-off point we have here and that s the only way by which we judge people. what urban means to us as an organisation is the politically correct term to describe music which originated from a black background. music should become inclusive and if we are fighting for a multi-cultural britain then we should be fighting for inclusion rather than exclusion. if joss stone can be accepted within the urban music community i think acts from other ethnicities doing classical music and rock should be accepted too. race doesn t make a difference if everyone is included. out of all the awards dished out yesterday i m still trying to find out what people of other races received any sort of recognition or award. a type of music (especially street music) that originates from a city and typically reflects or is characteristic of urban life. she might not be urban but when did r&b become the hip hop tainted thing it is now r&b stands for rhythm and blues remember! that joss stone is rubbish is certain. if anyone deserves to win an award for urban music (i think probably should include hip-hop soul & funk at least but not rock or pop) this year its the streets although dizzee rascal stakes a good claim she definitely deserved to win a prize joss stone s albums are quite simply amazing easily better than anything else that was released last year. this whole debate about what is urban what isnt urban is completely pointless and probably fueled by urban artists who weren t nominated or didn t win. i cant see why people can t just congratulate her for the talent that she is. she did deserve it but i agree with the comments about urban music. its a stupid phrase and particularly british. in the states they tend to use hip hop and r&b if i say hip hop here a lot of people have no idea what i m talking about. very strange. what s in a name a rose by any other name etc... if people want to call it urban why not if we really analysed it the term dance music is misleading because it doesn t describe everything you can dance to. whilst i agree that the term urban is open to interpretation it strikes me as simply weird that joss stone has won. urban to me is what i hear being played in parties in the inner cities - i live in brixton and have never heard the soul sessions pumping out of of a bass heavy sound system in any parties i ve been to. good luck to joss stone let s celebrate her victory - let s also question why with artists so successful and talented as jamelia lemar kanye west dizzee rascal alicia keys and outkast - we didn t see a single black artist on stage collecting an award. so what you re saying is that any music that has black heritage is not allowed to be sung by anyone who isn t black. and if it is then they shouldn t be acknowledged for it even if they re pretty dam good at it she s 17 has an amazing voice and won. good on her. oh but she s not black well let s make her feel real bad about it then. how dare she! though hang on didn t the so-called public vote on this one this idea of pigeonholing whatever is popular at the time is no different than what was happening in the 1940s and 50s in relation to what jazz was. the media then called anything that had a swinging beat syncopated melody or soulful feeling jazz much to the chagrin of the artists. it would mean that blues would be put in the same mould as bebop cool and ragtime all very different styles at that time. jazz was and remains such a massively misunderstood term. and so what of urban music in truth it s a lazy term to categorise music that you don t really understand. soul and garage are worlds apart musically (marvin gaye v tuff jam ) but no doubt have their connections. if we just let the music speak for itself and not judge the success of an artist by the number of awards won then maybe we can enjoy the music for what it is rather than what it represents. i demand a prize for rural music! sucks to the cities- it s way better out here. we have hay for one thing. excluding her from what has become known as urban music would be as bad as excluding lenny kravitz or hendrix from rock music for being black surely i dont understand the point that ty is making. if lemar who makes music which is less soulful than joss work won he might have said nothing. (btw i m black too) how can she be urban if she spent most of her life in the devon countryside nonsense. i love joss to bits and don t care what her branding is - it s amazing music full stop. stop puting it all in brackets and let s just call it music and let s especially drop the black / urban tag - nearly all music came from black origin this just sets an example that it is ok to pigeonhole people and their music by their colour. surely the point of having an urban music category is simply to acknowledge artists that are making what is (historically) considered urban music irrelevent of the colour of their skin or where they originate from. joss stone is simply singing a certain type of music that can be considered urban in style just as someone from an inner city and indeed not from the usa could sing country music. if that person was good at it and authentic in sound would we criticise it being referred to as country music or the artist for representing that style the term urban in reference to a music genre in uk has developed in part from the controversy surrounding the branding of the mobo awards. the very term music of black origin has confused and offended many people. this is particularly strange given the existence of the asian music awards. it appears that the use of black or white in relation to music makes people feel uncomfortable. the term urban therefore has been invoked to sidestep the debate of which type of music came first black or white thereby rendering the issue colourblind. the result is now a redundant new debate as to what urban also means. perhaps we should have created a new term altogether to describe the various strains of soul/rnb and hip-hop one which does not also mean something else - as we have done with crunk . urban is just a word that s come about recently to describe black music that s become popular now. the word wasn t even in use or common use five of six years ago. it s just a way of the industry clumping it all together without having to call it black music because some people are oversensitive and might call them racist for it. i m in a band that has been called urban and i despise the label. i d hate to think i belonged to any neat marketing niche because that s all it is. ever since the music channels and record comapnies tried to fracture what they consider music of black origin these labels have been used to undermine the status of good music into a commodity. look at all the tv broadcasters unable to reach young people without condesending they simply play some urban music on the soundtrack as if its some dreadful cheap lift music. ignore the labels it is what it is just music. as a black man i think i agree with some of the statements at least the statements made by the key executives. black people should lead the music they invented . we should stop calling a genre meaningless northing is meaningless. the real question is would joss stone would have been that successful doing the music she was doing if she were black same thing with streets amy winehouse etc. who s ever heard of terri walker or rhian benson.. they are both 10 times better than joss stone and both of them have won urban music awards and i think mobos but why not brits so what if joss stone won the urban awards. her music is great soul and surely that is under the urban banner what if the streets had won would people be whining because mike skinner is white... it seems that a lot of the fuss is about race where the real issue should be music and nothing else. urban is pc version for saying black music. i m not doubting ms stone s talent but why didn t jamelia or lemar get a brit this reminds me of what happened to craig david and soul ii soul in the past getting nominations are easy to get but picking up a brit seems to be the hardest thing. refreshing to see people making reasonable intelligent comments on any topic these days. more power to you people! you have said it: there is music you like and music you don t like - who cares what label you put on it that entire category was a mess. how can you have people like dizzee rascal up against joss stone its like putting eminem against bob geldof. she should have been nominated for best british r & b act. joss stone deserved to win an award for her talents but i don t think it was very urban of her to sing angels with robbie williams. urban is a nonsense term - music of black origin well doesn t that include rock music made in the inner cities well almost all bands end up making music in london/manchester etc. and doesn t that make some weird implication that all black people live in cities it doesn t make any sense. why does music have to be put into a genre it s music you like it or you don t. simple as that. i play in a heavy metal band. we are urban music as far as i m concerned. we live in cities and spend our working life in an urban environment; it therefore directly shapes what we write musically. urban seems to be the new name for all styles of black music. why it needed a rebrand i don t know as the name is misleading. oasis originate from a city and characterise the urban life they know therefore more than fit the term urban yet as they re a white rock band they won t be described as such. joss stone has a fantastic voice and great timing and delivery - what other reason do they need to award her the brit all this urban and other such categorisation is just the red-tape of the music business and is best ignored. yeah she deserved it. she is talented. urban is a crap meaningless politically correct and probably actually racist marketing term though. there s only two kinds of music: good and bad.
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entertainment
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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 .
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entertainment
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lib dems new election pr chief the lib dems have appointed a senior figure from bt to be the party s new communications chief for their next general election effort. sandy walkington will now work with senior figures such as matthew taylor on completing the party manifesto. party chief executive lord rennard said the appointment was a significant strengthening of the lib dem team . mr walkington said he wanted the party to be ready for any mischief rivals or the media tried to throw at it. my role will be to ensure this new public profile is effectively communicated at all levels he said. i also know the party will be put under scrutiny in the media and from the other parties as never before - and we will need to show ourselves ready and prepared to counter the mischief and misrepresentation that all too often comes from the party s opponents. the party is already demonstrating on every issue that it is the effective opposition. mr walkington s new job title is director of general election communications.
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politics
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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.
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business
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broadband set to revolutionise tv bt is starting its push into television with plans to offer tv over broadband. as a telecoms company bt is moving to a content distribution strategy andrew burke chief of bt s new entertainment unit told the iptv world forum. we want to be an entertainment facilitator he said on the opening day of the london conference. the bbc is also trialling a service to play programmes over the net and has not ruled out offering it to non-licence fee payers overseas. the corporation s interactive media player (imp) is its first foray into broadband tv - known as iptv (internet protocol tv). we see several opportunities for delivering the type of content that normally broadcasters find it difficult to get to viewers said bt s andrew burke. with more people on broadband and connection speeds increasing telcos around the world are looking for new ways to make money from it. increased competition between net service providers encouraged by ofcom has eroded bt s position in the market. it is looking for a good return on its investment in the technology which has made broadband over adsl a reality. it also sees delivering tv over broadband as a way of getting high-definition (hd) content to people sooner than they will be able to get it through conventional regular broadcasts. the bbc s imp has just finished successful technical trials and is set for much larger consumer trials later in 2005. before it officially launches the bbc must show the government how it offers value for money. delivering programmes over broadband offers clear public value says the bbc because it gives people more control and more choice. iptv is a similar idea to voip services like skype. both use broadband net connections to carry information like video and voice in packets of data instead of conventional means. since it uses internet technology iptv could mean more choice of programmes more more interactivity tailored programming and more localised content outside of conventional satellite digital cable and terrestrial broadcasts. it is all part of the larger changing tv technology landscape and like personal digital video recorders (pvrs) gives people much more control over tv. broadcasters see iptv and pvrs as both as a threat and an opportunity. the bbc recognises that tv over broadband is a reality and aims to innovate with it said rahul chakkara controller of bbci s 24/7 interactive tv services. the imp is based on peer-to-peer technology and lets people download programmes the bbc owns the rights to for up to seven days after broadcast. iptv enables us to take back that programme to our audience at different times said mr chakkara. so we can tell our audience that that programme they paid for [via the licence fee] they can access it any time they want. it helps said mr burke that people are more au fait with terms like digital interactive now that digital tv reaches more than 56% of uk homes. according to benoit joly from broadband telecoms firm thales 30% of europe cannot get satellite tv or digital tv. they could get iptv though. analysts say that iptv will account for 10% of the digital tv market in europe alone by the end of the decade. what needs to happen now agree analysts is for connection speeds to be bumped up to handle the service; 20mbps connections would be ideal. bt does not see itself as a broadcaster of iptv services rather as an enabler said mr burke. its strategy is a hybrid approach he explained where over-the-air conventional broadcasts are supplemented with content over broadband. initially appealing to niche markets like sports fans it will widen out. but iptv could be used for home-monitoring pet cams localised news services and local authority tv too says bt. it even suggests that it could target those households in the uk that do not own a computer 40% of the country. broadband to them would not be about data and the net - that could come later for them - but about cheap phone calls and more choice of tv programmes. home choice already offers 10 000 hours of shows and channels delivered over broadband to homes in london. with a broadband net subscription you can also get your tv and phone service. through content deals and partnerships it offers satellite as well as terrestrial channels and bespoke channels based on what viewers pick and choose from its catalogues. it aims to expand nationally but is seeing a lot of success with what it offers its 15 000 subscribers now and aims to double uptake as well as reach by the summer. although still at a very early stage iptv is another application for broadband that underlines its growing prominence as a backbone network - another utility like electricity.
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tech
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domain system opens door to scams 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 engineering 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.
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attack prompts bush site block the official re-election site of president george w bush is blocking visits from overseas users for security reasons . the blocking began early on monday so those outside the us and trying to view the site got a message saying they are not authorised to view it. but keen net users have shown that the policy is not being very effective. many have found that the site can still be viewed by overseas browsers via several alternative net addresses. the policy of trying to stop overseas visitors viewing the site is thought to have been adopted in response to an attack on the georgewbush.com website. scott stanzel a spokesman for the bush-cheney campaign said: the measure was taken for security reasons. he declined to elaborate any further on the blocking policy. the barring of non-us visitors has led to the campaign being inundated with calls and forced it to make a statement about why the blocking was taking place. in early october a so-called denial of service attack was mounted on the site that bombarded it with data from thousands of pcs. the attack made the site unusable for about five hours. about the same time the web team of the bush-cheney campaign started using the services of a company called akamai that helps websites deal with the ebbs and flows of visitor traffic. akamai uses a web-based tool called edgescape that lets its customers work out where visitors are based. typically this tool is used to ensure that webpages video and images load quickly but it can also be used to block traffic. geographic blocking works because the numerical addresses that the net uses to organise itself are handed out on a regional basis. readers of the boingboing weblog have found that viewers can still get at the site by using alternative forms of the george w bush domain name. ironically one of the working alternatives is for a supposedly more secure version of the site. there are now at least three working alternative domains for the bush-cheney campaign that let web users outside the us visit the site. the site can also be seen using anonymous proxy services that are based in the us. some web users in canada also report that they can browse the site. the international exclusion zone around georgewbush.com was spotted by net monitoring firm netcraft which keeps an eye on traffic patterns across many different sites. netcraft said that since the early hours of 25 october attempts to view the site through its monitoring stations in london amsterdam and sydney have failed. by contrast netcraft s four monitoring stations in the us managed to view the site with no problems. data gathered by netcraft on the pattern of traffic to the site shows that the blocking is not the result of another denial of service attack. mike prettejohn netcraft president speculated that the blocking decision might have been taken to cut costs and traffic in the run-up to the election on 2 november. he said the site may see no reason to distribute content to people who will not be voting next week. managing traffic could also be a good way to ensure that the site stays working in the closing days of the election campaign. however simply blocking non-us visitors also means that americans overseas are barred too. most american soldiers stationed overseas will be able to see the site as they use the us military s own portion of the net. akamai declined to comment saying it could not talk about customer websites.
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young debut cut short by ginepri fifteen-year-old donald young s first appearance in an atp tennis tournament proved brief as the teenager went out in round one of the san jose open. young shot to the top of the junior world rankings when he won the boys singles at january s australian open. but the wildcard entry was dispatched by fellow american robby ginepri in straight sets 6-2 6-2 in california. despite that he was happy with his tour debut. it was fun. i had my chances but they didn t come through he said. young who beat two players ranked in the top 200 when he was just 14 was only 2-1 down in the first set before losing 10 of the next 13 games. and ginepri - six years older than the youngest player to ever win a junior slam and top the global standings - admitted he was impressed. he s very talented said ginepri. he s got a long future ahead of him. being left-handed he was very quick around the court. his serve is a little deceptive. he came into the net and volleyed better than i thought. earlier south korean hyung-taik lee defeated american jan-michael gambill 6-3 7-6 (7-4). american kevin kim defeated jan hernych of the czech republic 7-5 6-3 canadian qualifier frank dancevic downed american jeff morrison 4-6 7-6 (7-3) 6-0 and denmark s kenneth carlsen beat irakli labadze of the republic of georgia 6-7 (4-7) 6-2 6-3. top seed andy roddick launches his defence of the title on wednesday against qualifier paul goldstein. second seed andre agassi opens his campaign on tuesday against wildcard bobby reynolds last year s us collegiate champion. agassi has won the san jose five times but his run of three straight titles ended last year when he fell to mardy fish in the semi-finals. fish went on to lose to roddick in the final.
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sport
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new harry potter tops book chart harry potter and the half-blood prince has topped amazon s book chart less than 24 hours after its release date - 16 july - was announced. thousands of customers placed pre-orders on the amazon.co.uk website for the sixth book in the series. rowling revealed she had completed the novel on tuesday ahead of the scheduled announcement on 25 december. it will be published simultaneously in the uk the us canada australia new zealand and south africa. jk rowling s fifth book in the wizard series harry potter and order of the phoenix was amazon s largest pre-ordered item ever with 420 000 copies pre-ordered prior to its release in june 2003. customers who pre-order harry potter and the half-blood prince avoid standing in long queues at bookshops on the day of the book s release next july. the fact that the book has already hit number one in our hot 100 books chart shows how incredibly excited customers are about the sixth harry potter said amazon s robin terrell. harry potter and the half-blood prince takes up the story of harry potter s sixth year at hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry as lord voldemort grows stronger. rowling has already revealed that the half-blood prince is neither harry nor voldemort. and she added that the opening chapter of the book had been brewing in her mind for 13 years. rowling said she had plenty of time while pregnant to tinker with the manuscript to my satisfaction and i am as happy as i have ever been with the end result . she also previously revealed that a character will be killed in the sixth book but she has given no hints as to who it might be. following publication of the sixth book just one novel remains to complete the series.
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entertainment
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speak easy plan for media players music and film fans will be able to control their digital media players just by speaking to them under plans in development by two us firms. scansoft and gracenote are developing technology to give people access to their film and music libraries simply by voice control. they want to give people hands-free access to digital music and films in the car or at home or on the move. huge media libraries on some players can make finding single songs hard. voice command-and-control unlocks the potential of devices that can store large digital music collections said ross blanchard vice president of business development for gracenote. these applications will radically change the car entertainment experience allowing drivers to enjoy their entire music collections without ever taking their hands off the steering wheel he added. gracenote provides music library information for millions of different albums for jukeboxes such as apple s itunes. the new technology will be designed so that people can play any individual song or movie out of a collection just by saying its name. users will also be able to request music that fits a mood or an occasion or a film just by saying the actor s name. speech is a natural fit for today s consumer devices particularly in mobile environments said alan schwartz vice president of speechworks a division of scansoft. pairing our voice technologies with gracenote s vast music database will bring the benefits of speech technologies to a host of consumer devices and enable people to access their media in ways they ve never imagined. the two firms did not say if they were developing the technology for languages other than english. users will also be able to get more information on a favourite song they have been listening to by asking: what is this portable players are becoming popular in cars and a number of auto firms are working with apple to device interfaces to control the firm s ipod music player. but with tens of thousands of songs able to be stored on one player voice control would make finding that elusive track by elvis presley much easier. the firms gave no indication about whether the ipod or any other media player were in mind for the use of the voice control technology. the companies estimate that the technology will be available in the fourth quarter of 2005.
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tech
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pearce keen on succeeding keegan joint assistant boss stuart pearce has admitted he would like to succeed kevin keegan as manager at manchester city. keegan has decided to step down as city manager when his contract comes to an end in 18 months. you don t have to be einstein to realise there will be a manager s job available at a really good club pearce told bbc gmr. i will certainly be applying for it although whether the board deem me good enough to take it i do not know. pearce initially joined city as a player under keegan in 2001 before becoming part of the coaching staff. he was promoted to joint assistant-manager following the departure of arthur cox last summer. the former england defender had a year as player-boss with nottingham forest eight seasons ago but has made no secret of his desire to have another crack at the job. he was linked with the manager s job at oldham and keegan has stated he would not get in the way if pearce wanted to leave. but it now appears pearce is keen to wait for his chance at city. he added: by that time i will have been here for five years so at least they will have had a good look at me and they are aware of my feelings with regard to being kevin s successor. obviously the issue is out of my hands but it is a fantastic job for anybody - i just hope it will be me.
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playstation 3 processor unveiled the cell processor which will drive sony s playstation 3 will run 10-times faster than current pc chips its designers have said. sony ibm and toshiba who have been working on the cell processor for three years unveiled the chip on monday. it is being designed for use in graphics workstations the new playstation console and has been described as a supercomputer on a chip. the chip will run at speeds of greater than 4 ghz the firms said. by comparison rival chip maker intel s fastest processor runs at 3.8 ghz. details of the chip were released at the international solid state circuits conference in san francisco. the new processor is set to ignite a fresh battle between intel and the cell consortium over which processor sits at the centre of digital products. the playstation 3 is expected in 2006 while toshiba plans to incorporate it into high-end televisions next year. ibm has said it will sell a workstation with the chip starting later this year. cell is comprised of several computing engines or cores. a core based on ibm s power architecture controls eight synergistic processing centres. in all they can simultaneously carry out 10 instruction sequences compared with two for current intel chips. later this year intel and advanced micro devices plan to release their own multicore chips which also increase the number of instructions that can be executed at once. the cell s specifications suggest the playstation 3 will offer a significant boost in graphics capabilities but analysts cautioned that not all the features in a product announcement will find their way into systems. any new technology like this has two components said steve kleynhans an analyst with meta group. he said: it has the vision of what it could be because you need the big vision to sell it. then there s the reality of how it s really going to be used which generally is several levels down the chain from there. while the playstation 3 is likely to be the first mass-market product to use cell the chip s designers have said the flexible architecture means that it would be useful for a wide range of applications from servers to mobile phones. initial devices are unlikely to be any smaller than a games console however because the first version of the cell will run hot enough to need a cooling fan. and while marketing speak describes the chip as a supercomputer - it remains significantly slower than the slowest computer on the list of the world s top 500 supercomputers. ibm said cell was os neutral and would support multiple operating systems simultaneously but designers would not confirm if microsoft s windows was among those tested with the chip. if cell is to challenge intel s range of chips in the marketplace it will need to find itself inside pcs which predominantly run using windows.
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ask jeeves tips online ad revival ask jeeves has become the third leading online search firm this week to thank a revival in internet advertising for improving fortunes. the firm s revenue nearly tripled in the fourth quarter of 2004 exceeding $86m (£46m). ask jeeves once among the best-known names on the web is now a relatively modest player. its $17m profit for the quarter was dwarfed by the $204m announced by rival google earlier in the week. during the same quarter yahoo earned $187m again tipping a resurgence in online advertising. the trend has taken hold relatively quickly. late last year marketing company doubleclick one of the leading providers of online advertising warned that some or all of its business would have to be put up for sale. but on thursday it announced that a sharp turnaround had brought about an unexpected increase in profits. neither ask jeeves nor doubleclick thrilled investors with their profit news however. in both cases their shares fell by some 4%. analysts attributed the falls to excessive expectations in some quarters fuelled by the dramatic outperformance of google on tuesday.
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business
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singer ferguson facing eviction three degrees star sheila ferguson is the favourite to be evicted from itv s i m a celebrity... get me out of here on monday. bookmakers ladbrokes says the singer has even odds of being the first contestant to be voted off the show. it s going to be close but sheila is favourite as she has shown herself to be a bit of a troublemaker said ladbrokes warren lush. comic joe pasquale remains odds on favourite to win the reality show. mr lush added that nancy sorrell s chances of an early departure had increased since the surprise arrival of husband vic reeves in the jungle camp last wednesday. notwithstanding comedian reeves remains 3/1 favourite to win the show after pasquale. huggy bear actor antonio fargas also remains a contender for eviction having done nothing to live up to the pre-show hype . there has been a big gamble on natalie [appleton] to go... but bookies fancy the millions at home will keep piling on the misery by putting her through more bushtucker trials added mr lush. the former all saint star has performed dismally in bushtucker trials which have seen her plunged into glass tanks containing putrid waste and challenged to eat fish eyes. on friday ladbrokes suspended betting after singer brian harvey quit the show folllowing a blazing row with janet street-porter. harvey who entered the camp a day later than other contestants after learning that his grandmother had died reached the end of his tether following days of meagre rations and rows.
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entertainment
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ministers deny care sums wrong ministers have insisted they are committed to free personal care for the elderly despite research suggesting the cost of the policy was under-estimated. a report by the fraser of allander institute says the decision to push ahead with the flagship policy was based on flawed research. deputy health minister rhona brankin has pledged to study the research. snp holyrood leader nicola sturgeon said the public needed reassurance that the care programme was secure. the rise in costs stems from a series of mistakes in the research used by the care development group of scottish executive experts who prepared the original costings according to findings published in the quarterly economic commentary of strathclyde university s fraser of allander institute. dubious assumptions about improving health expectancy could drive the cost of the policy up by another £130m by 2022 the report warned. it was carried out by husband and wife economist team jim and margaret cuthbert. but ms brankin told bbc radio scotland: we don t think we got our sums wrong. obviously we will examine the findings of this new report along with figures from our own research that we have already commissioned. we will look in great detail at any contribution to this because we need to be sure we can provide free personal care and nursing care for our older people into the future. and we are absolutely committed to doing that. but the scottish national party called on ministers to reassure people that enough funding is in place to support the free personal care policy. ms sturgeon said that while she had no reason to doubt the executive s support for the policy there were questions which needed to be answered and if necessary sums redone. she said: serious concerns have been raised and there are questions which need to be answered by the scottish executive. we need to know that the money is there not just for this year or next year but into the future so that older people and those who are looking forward to older age can rest assured that their personal care needs will be met.
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politics
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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.
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business
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beckham virus spotted on the net virus writers are trading on interest in david beckham to distribute their malicious wares. messages are circulating widely that purport to have evidence of the england captain in a compromising position. but anyone visiting the website mentioned in the message will not see pictures of mr beckham but will have their computer infected by a virus. the pernicious program opens a backdoor on a computer so it can be controlled remotely by malicious hackers. the appearance of the beckham windows trojan is just another example in a long line of viruses that trade on interest in celebrities in an attempt to fuel their spread. tennis player anna kournikova popstars britney spears and avril lavigne as well as arnold schwarzenegger have all been used in the past to try to con people into opening infected files. the huge amount of interest in mr beckham and his private life and the large number of messages posted to discussion groups on the net might mean that the malicious program catches a lot of people out. the public s appetite for salacious gossip about the private life of the beckhams might lead some into an unpleasant computer infection said graham cluley from anti-virus firm sophos. simply opening the message will not infect a user s pc. but anyone visiting the website it mentions who then downloads and opens the fake image file stored on that site will be infected. the program that installs itself is called the hackarmy trojan and it tries to recruit pcs into so-called bot networks that are often used to distribute spam mail messages or to launch attacks across the web. computers running microsoft windows 95 98 2000 nt and xp are vulnerable to this trojan. many anti-virus programs have been able to detect this trojan since it first appeared early this year and have regularly been updated to catch new variants.
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tech
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harinordoquy suffers france axe number eight imanol harinordoquy has been dropped from france s squad for the six nations match with ireland in dublin on 12 march. harinordoquy was a second-half replacement in last saturday s 24-18 defeat to wales. bourgoin lock pascal pape who has recovered from a sprained ankle returns to the 22-man squad. wing cedric heymans and ludovic valbon come in for aurelien rougerie and jean-philippe grandclaude. rougerie hurt his chest against wales while grandclaude was a second-half replacement against both england and wales. valbon capped in last june s tests against the united states and canada was a second half replacement in the win over scotland. france coach bernard laporte said harinordoquy had been axed after a poor display last weekend. imanol has been dropped from the squad because the least i can say is that he didn t make a thundering comeback against wales said laporte. we know the ireland game will be fast and rough and we also want to be able to replace both locks during the game if needed and gregory lamboley can also come on at number seven or eight. the grand slam is gone but we ll go to ireland to win. it will be a very exciting game because ireland have three wins under their belt have just defeated england and have their eyes set on a grand slam. france who lost to wales last week must defeat the irish to keep alive their hopes of retaining the six nations trophy. ireland are unbeaten in this year s tournament and have their sights set on a first grand slam since 1948. dimitri yachvili (biarritz) pierre mignoni (clermont) yann delaigue (castres) frederic michalak (stade toulousain) damien traille (biarritz) yannick jauzion (stade toulousain) ludovic valbon (biarritz) christophe dominici (stade francais) cedric heymans (stade toulousain) julien laharrague (brive) sylvain marconnet (stade francais) nicolas mas (perpignan) olivier milloud (bourgoin) sebastien bruno (sale/eng) william servat (stade toulousain) fabien pelous (stade toulousain capt) jerome thion (biarritz) pascal papé (bourgoin) gregory lamboley (stade toulousain) serge betsen (biarritz) julien bonnaire (bourgoin) yannick nyanga (béziers)
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sport
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wall street cheers bush victory the us stock market has closed higher in response to george w bush s victory in the presidential elections. the benchmark dow jones share index closed more than 1% higher at 10 137 while the nasdaq rose 0.9% to 2 004. many investors believe that mr bush s policies are more business-friendly than those of his democrat challenger john kerry. the higher share prices also reflect relief that a clear winner has emerged from what proved to be a tight poll. investors had worried that the outcome of the poll would be inconclusive paving the way for a repeat of the legal wrangling that marred the 2000 election. the dow lost 5% of its value in the three weeks immediately after that election when it was unclear who would occupy the white house. mr kerry conceded defeat on wednesday abandoning last-ditch hopes of carrying the vote in the swing state of ohio. the relief for the markets may be that we have a decision and can move forward said tim ghriskey chief investment officer of solaris asset management. some analysts predicted that the jump in share prices would be short-lived saying investors would quickly focus once again on the health of the us economy. i would look at the stock market rally for bush as kind of a one-day event said ken mayland at clearview economics. the us recent economic performance has been mixed with solid growth offset by disappointingly low job creation figures and mounting worries over a record budget deficit. elsewhere in the financial markets on wednesday the dollar dipped slightly against the euro and climbed against the yen while us oil prices closed up $1.26 at $50.88 a barrel in new york. the rise in oil prices partly reflects the view that president bush is less likely than mr kerry to release supplies from the us strategic oil reserve. share prices in london frankfurt and paris also closed higher. successive polls in the run-up to tuesday s election had shown the two candidates running neck and neck. economic issues as well as the war in iraq were the forefront of the campaign. in key swing states such as ohio which has suffered substantial job losses in the past four years president bush s handling of the economy became a crucial election issue. senator kerry attacked president bush s economic record during his campaign hammering home the fact that a net 800 000 jobs were lost during his term in office. president bush focused on the fact that two million jobs have been created in the past year claiming that it has vindicated his tax-cutting agenda. as for future policies both candidates pledged to bring america s $422bn federal budget deficit under control. senator kerry planned to increase taxes on those earning more than $200 000 a year. president bush has placed reform of the pensions system at the heart of his economic agenda for a second term. however economists have said both candidates economic programmes rested on questionable assumptions about future growth.
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business
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halo fans hope for sequel xbox video game halo 2 has been released in the us on 9 november with a uk release two days later. why is the game among the most anticipated of all time halo is considered by many video game pundits to be one of the finest examples of interactive entertainment ever produced and more than 1.5 million people worldwide have pre-ordered the sequel. a science fiction epic halo centred the action on a human cyborg controlled by the player who had to save his crew from an alien horde after a crash landing on a strange and exotic world contained on the interior surface of a giant ring in space. remembrance of things past it was not - but as a slice of schlock science fiction inspired by works such as larry niven s ringworld and the film starship troopers it fit the bill perfectly. halo stood out from a crowd of similar titles - it was graphically impressive had tremendous audio using dolby digital a decent storyline instant playability and impressive physics. but what marked halo as a classic were the thousands of details which brought a feeling of polish and the enormously-high production values not usually associated with video gaming. produced by bungie software renowned for their innovation in gaming it caused a stir among the gaming fraternity when the developer was bought by microsoft and became an xbox exclusive. claude errera editor of fansite halo.bungie.org said: bungie got everything right. they were really careful to make sure everything worked the way it was supposed to. nothing distracts you when you were playing. there was nothing in halo that had not been done before but everything in there was as good as it could be. he added: graphically it was superior to everything else out there. it also had a depth to it that made it stand out. halo was unusually immersive sucking the player into the action and blurring the interface between screen and controller. it also capitalised on the growing popularity of lan gaming in the pc world - for the first time it became easy to link multiple game consoles together allowing up to 16 players to battle against each other at the same time. the game instantly cultivated an online following which continues today with a score of halo fan websites following every aspect of the sequel halo 2. errera spends three to fours hours a day of his own time maintaining the hugely popular website which attracts 600 000 page views a day from halo fans eager for the latest news. when the xbox launched on november 15 2001 in the us halo was one of the launch titles and had an immediate impact on critics and consumers. halo is the most important launch game for any console ever wrote the influential edge magazine in its review giving it a rare 10 out of 10 mark. the game had its critics and while it is not a one-off original as a game it brought many original touches and flourishes to the genre which have defined all other first person shooters since. the first time i played it i just stood there watching the spent shells fall out of my gun said errera remarking on the level of detail in the game. the game also inspired thousands of people to write their own fiction based on the storyline and produce downloadable video clips of the many weird and wonderful things that can be done in the game. it blew me away the first time someone managed to climb to the top of halo said errera referring to a fan who had created a video of master chief scaling the landscape of the graphical world. video clips of the more outrageous stunts that are possible thanks to the game s amazing physics engine are incredibly popular and some have attained a cult following. speculation about the sequel has seen every titbit analysed and poured over with all the intent of a forensic scientist examining a body. when early screenshots of the game were released some people wrote essay-length articles highlighting everything from the texture of graphics to clues about the story line. errera said expectations of the sequel among fans were sky high. it does not feel like a game release any more. somebody told me this was the biggest single release of any product in microsoft s history. we re all just hoping that bungie has got it right again. halo 2 is out on 9 november in the us and 11 november in the uk
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tech
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mobiles double up as bus tickets mobiles could soon double up as travel cards with nokia planning to try out a wireless ticket system on german buses. early next year travellers in the city of hanau near frankfurt will be able to pay for tickets by passing their phone over a smart-card reader already installed on the buses. passengers will need to own a nokia 3220 handset which will have a special shell attached to it. the system would reduce queues and make travelling easier said nokia. transport systems around the world are seeing the advantage of using ticketless smartcards. using a mobile phone is the next step said gerhard romen head of market development at nokia. the ticketless trial will start early in 2005 and people will also be able to access transport information and timetables via their phones. nokia has worked with electronics giant philips to develop a shell for the mobile phone that will be compatible with hanau s existing ticketing system. the system opens up possibilities for mobile devices to be interact with everyday environments said mr romen. it could be used in shops to get product information at bus-stops to get information about the next bus or for example by being passed over an advert of a rock star to find out details of concerts or get ringtones he told the bbc news website. he is confident that the trial being run in germany could be extended to transport systems in other countries. the technology offers access to a lot of services and makes it easy to get the information you want he said.
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tech
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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.
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fiat chief takes steering wheel the chief executive of the fiat conglomerate has taken day-to-day control of its struggling car business in an effort to turn it around. sergio marchionne has replaced herbert demel as chief executive of fiat auto with mr demel leaving the company. mr marchionne becomes the fourth head of the business - which is expected to make a 800m euro ($1bn) loss in 2004 - in as many years. fiat underperformed the market in europe last year seeing flat sales. the car business has made an operating loss in five of the last six years and was forced to push back its break-even target from 2005 to 2006. the management changes are part of a wider shake-up of the business following fiat s resolution of its dispute with general motors. as part of a major restructuring fiat is to integrate the maserati car company - currently owned by ferrari - within its own operations. ferrari in which fiat owns a majority stake could be separately floated on the stock market in either 2006 or 2007. mr marchionne who only joined the company last year said fiat auto was now the principal focus of his attention. i have made the decision to take on the post of chief executive of the auto unit to speed up the company s recovery he said. a profound cultural transformation is underway following a management reorganisation that has delivered a more agile and efficient structure he added. although mr marchionne does not have a background in the car industry he has been playing an increasing role in the group s activities. last year he said that a series of new models launched as part of the group s recovery plan had not boosted revenues as much as hoped. the car business best known for its alfa romeo marque is expected to make a loss of about 800m euros in 2004. sales are expected to fall in 2005 fiat said this week as it exits unprofitable areas such as the rental car market. mr demel a car industry veteran took the helm in november 2003 after being recruited by former fiat chief executive giuseppe morchio. mr morchio made a bid last year to become chairman after the death of president umberto agnelli. however this was rejected by the founding agnelli family and mr morchio subsequently resigned. earlier this week fiat reached an agreement with gm to dissolve an alliance which could have obliged gm to buy the italian firm outright. gm will pay fiat $2bn as part of the settlement.
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mourinho expects fight to finish chelsea manager jose mourinho expects the champions league clash with barcelona to be a fight to the finish. mourinho is relishing the first leg of the tie against his former club in the last 16 in the nou camp. he said: i wouldn t be surprised if nothing had been decided by the last minute of the return leg and the match had to go into extra time. i have to defend what is mine and the champions league is mine at the moment. i m the last manager to have won it. mourinho never coached barcelona assisting both sir bobby robson and louis van gaal. but he is not envious insisting: i don t have to be jealous about barcelona because they have 100 years of history and have won the european cup once. i have been managing for five years and i have the same amount of champions league trophies to my name. barcelona star ronaldinho admitted: i think that it is going to be a difficult match for us because chelsea have a good team full of big stars. i have seen chelsea a few times on television tactically they are very good and they are very strong on the counter-attack. they pressure very well and keep possession of the ball so it will be important that we play our own game. i believe they are the two strongest teams in europe. nevertheless barcelona are accustomed to playing big games at the nou camp where they have to face the likes of real madrid each season. it is a special game the atmosphere in the city changes there are lots of journalists but inside the dressing room there is not a lot of difference ronaldinho added. we are only thinking of winning the match with all respect to the opposition.
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prince crowned top music earner prince earned more than any other pop star in 2004 beating artists such madonna and elton john in us magazine rolling stone s annual list. the singer banked $56.5m (£30.4m) from concerts album and publishing sales with his musicology tour and album. he kept madonna in second place as she earned $54.9m (£29.5m) while embarking on her global re-invention tour. veterans simon and garfunkel were in 10th place their comeback tour helping them earn $24.9m (£13.4m) last year. prince returned to centre stage after a decade in the commercial wilderness the magazine reported. the singer s 2004 tour took $90.3m (£48.5m) in ticket sales and he sold 1.9 million copies of his latest album musicology. although she grossed more than prince last year madonna remained in second place because of the monumental production costs of her tour. heavy metal band metallica s madly in anger with the world tour helped push their 2004 earnings up to $43.1m (£23.1m). they were ahead of sir elton john who took fourth place and almost $42.7m (£23m) from performances including a debut on the las vegas strip. other seasoned performers in the list included rod stewart whose sold-out shows and third volume of the great american songbook covers album helped net him £35m (£19m). the highest-ranking rap act in the list was 50 cent who at number 19 took $24m (£13m) to the bank.
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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.
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boro suffer morrison injury blow middlesbrough midfielder james morrison has been ruled out for up to eight weeks after an operation on tuesday. the 18-year-old who has played in 13 of the club s last 14 games had surgery to repair a double hernia. a club spokesman confirmed: it is a bilateral sportsman s hernia which was operated on yesterday. morrison was sent for scans after being substituted at half-time during boro s 2-1 uefa cup win over graz ak in which he scored the equaliser. his injury is the latest blow for the teessiders who have been without gaizka mendieta george boateng and mark viduka for extended periods. meanwhile the kick-off time for boro s uefa cup match at sporting lisbon on 17 march has been brought forward from 2115 gmt to 1945 gmt.
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brown outlines third term vision gordon brown has outlined what he thinks should be the key themes of new labour s next general election bid. he said ensuring every child in britain had the best start in life could be a legacy to match the nhs s creation. the chancellor has previously planned the party s election strategy but this time the role will be filled by alan milburn - a key ally of tony blair. the premier insisted mr brown will have a key role in labour s campaign and praised his handling of the economy. writing in the guardian newspaper mr brown outlined his view of the direction new labour should be taking. as our manifesto and our programme for the coming decade should make clear labour s ambition is not simply tackling idleness but delivering full employment; not just attacking ignorance disease and squalor but promoting lifelong education good health and sustainable communities. bbc political editor andrew marr said that mr brown s article was a warning shot to mr blair not to try and cut him out of the manifesto writing process. it was as always coded and careful... but entirely deliberate was mr marr s assessment. the prime minister was asked about mr brown s article and about his election role when he appeared on bbc radio 4 s today programme. mr blair said a decision had yet to be taken over how the election would be run but the chancellor s role would be central . mr blair argued that under new labour the country had changed for the better and that was in part because of mr brown s management of the economy. and he pledged childcare would be a centrepiece of labour s manifesto. he also predicted the next general election will be a tough tough fight for new labour. but the prime minister insisted he did not know what date the poll would take place despite speculation about 5 may. mr blair said he was taking nothing for granted ahead of the vote - warning that the tory strategy was to win power via the back door by hinting they were aiming to cut labour s majority instead of hoping for an outright win.
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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.
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howard s unfinished business he s not finished yet whispered the conservative party person as your reporter attempted to slip quietly from the hall. and indeed he wasn t. michael howard had already broken away from the printed text of his speech at his party s spring conference in brighton to deliver a smart rebuff to peter hain s description of him as an attack mongrel claiming such personal abuse meant labour was rattled by the tory challenge. and here he was again moving to the front of the stage as the party faithful rose to their feet in applause to make a personal ad-libbed appeal to them to go out and fight for victory. one day you will be able to tell your children and grandchildren as i will tell mine i was there. i did my bit. i played my part. i helped to win that famous election - the election that transformed our country for the better . the speech which was peppered with references to mr howard s humble beginnings as the child of immigrants had been introduced by his son nick a trainee vicar who praised his father s honesty. i always know where i am with him because all my life he has meant what he has said to me he said. mr howard was also joined on stage by his wife sandra daughter larissa and stepson sholto. the audience s reaction to all of this was a little muted by party conference standards. but mr howard s overall message - that the tories have labour on the run and that they can win the next election - did not sound quite as hollow as it might have done six months ago. mr howard claimed with some justification that the tories campaign has got off to a great start . they have had labour on the back foot over immigration with tony blair hastily adding a sixth promise on the issue to his latest pledge card and have even managed to score points in traditional labour territory such as health and education. the stunts involving margaret dixon with her postponed operation and maria hutchings with concerns about her son s special needs education may not have been to everyone s taste but they succeeded in bringing the issues alive and forcing labour to react. senior tories believe they are at long last starting to tap into the public mood cutting through the background noise to connect with the ordinary voter. their latest poster campaign flags up a range of policies from better school discipline cleaner hospitals ( i mean how hard is it to keep a hospital clean ) and immigration ( it s not racist to impose limits on immigration ) - under the headline are you thinking what we are thinking this they say contrasts with labour s negative campaigning such as its now infamous flying pigs poster. oliver letwin one of the men lampooned in the labour poster affects bewilderment at what he believes is labour s loss of its once sure footing on the campaign trail. the peter hain mongrel attack he says is just the latest example of the party getting the tone wrong - a by-product he claims of the tories setting the agenda. i have to say i don t understand what they are doing. the labour machine appears to be in some kind of state of shock it doesn t seem to know what to do. a few weeks of positive headlines have also done wonders for tory activists morale - likely to be a crucial factor at an election which most analysts seem to agree will hinge on which party can get their core support out. it has been a fantastic few weeks said 20-year-old politics student nick vaughan. our policies have been getting in the media and there is a sense that we can win. i wouldn t be here if i didn t think we could. some delegates even spoke of the next election being like 1970 when ted heath behind in the polls and written off by the pundits snatched victory from harold wilson s labour party. they all insisted it was not going to be a re-run of 2001. we thought in 2001 we were going to dent that massive majority but it just didn t happen said john murray of aldridge browhills conservatives. it was very disappointing. this time it really is different. whoever is running our strategy from the top has got it bang on. blair is on the back foot. much of the credit for the tories recent change of fortune must go to lynton crosby the australian strategist who succeeded in turning political veteran and apparent no-hoper john howard of australia s liberal party into a serial election winner. the tories still have a mountain climb if michael howard is to walk through the doors of number 10. even allowing for the natural bias against the tories in some opinion polls they are still behind when to have a chance of overturning labour s whopping majority they should really be ahead. but as they gear up for the start of the campaign proper the party at least has reason to hope that like his australian namesake mr howard really isn t finished yet.
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edu describes tunnel fracas arsenal s edu has lifted the lid on the scenes that followed manchester united s win over the gunners. the brazilian confirmed tempers had flared but could shed no light on reports that food was thrown at united boss sir alex ferguson. i saw people being pulled apart people pushing pointing and shouting he told uefa s official website. the united players were trying to wind us up about the result but i didn t see any soup being thrown at anyone. however edu tried to play down the incidents adding: there was nothing that i haven t seen in brazilian derbies. derby matches in brazil are worse. i like to play in games like this with this intense rivalry. but edu was highly critical of the ferocity of some of united s challenges during the game particularly on jose antonio reyes. i think we were a lot fairer in the tackles than united he said. reyes was being kicked all over the park - they were beating up the boy and gary neville was tackling in such a way that he should have been sent off. following the game the football association said it would look into events in the tunnel. it also charged ruud van nistelrooy with serious foul play while arsenal boss arsene wenger has been asked to explain comments he made about the referee.
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rapper 50 cent ends protege feud rapper 50 cent has ended his public feud with his protege the game as the pair said they wanted to be good role models for their communities. the row blew up when 50 cent threw the game out of his g-unit crew and accused him of being disloyal. a member of the game s entourage was reportedly shot outside a radio station where 50 cent was being interviewed. but the pair shook hands as they handed over money to music projects for new york s deprived areas on wednesday. the game whose real name is jayceon taylor told a news conference: i want to apologise. i m almost ashamed to have participated in the things that went on over the last few weeks. chart-topper 50 cent real name curtis jackson said the truce came on the anniversary of the death of the notorious big in 1997 who was part of a volatile feud between the east and west coast rap scenes. we re here today to show that people can rise above the most difficult circumstances and together we can put negativity behind us 50 cent said. a lot of people don t want to see it happen but we re responding to the two most important groups - our family and our fans. the boys choir of harlem got a cheque for $150 000 (£77 800) from 50 cent while the game handed over $103 500 (£53 400). the game also made a contribution to the compton schools music programme. 50 cent announced he has launched the g-unity foundation to help people overcome obstacles and make a chance for the better in their lives . i realised that if i m going to be effective at that i have to overcome some of my own he said. game and i need to set an example in the community. 50 cent is no stranger to feuds with rapper ja rule among the targets for ridicule in his songs. on his latest album released earlier this month he turned his attentions to fat joe and nas who have both worked with ja rule. both he and the game have admitted drug dealing in the past and have both been shot.
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emi shares hit by profit warning shares in music giant emi have sunk by more than 16% after the firm issued a profit warning following disappointing sales and delays to two album releases. emi said music sales for the year to march will fall 8-9% from the year before with profits set to be 15% lower than analysts had expected. it blamed poor sales since christmas and delays to the releases of new albums by coldplay and gorillaz. by 1200 gmt on monday emi shares were down 16.2% at 235.75 pence. emi said two major albums scheduled for release before the end of the financial year in march - one by coldplay and one by gorillaz - have now had their release dates put back. emi music s sales particularly re-orders in january have also been lower than anticipated and this is expected to continue through february and march the company added. therefore for the full year at constant currency emi music s sales are now expected to be 8% to 9% lower than the prior year. the company said it expected profits to be about £138m ($259.8m). alain levy chairman and chief executive of emi music described the performance as disappointing but added that he remained optimistic over future trends in the industry. the physical music market is showing signs of stabilisation in many parts of the world and digital music in all its forms continues to develop at a rapid pace he said. commenting on the delay to the release of the coldplay and gorillaz albums mr levy said that creating and marketing music is not an exact science and cannot always coincide with our reporting periods . while this rescheduling and recent softness is disappointing it does not change my views of the improving health of the global recorded music industry he added. paul richards an analyst at numis securities said the market would be focusing on the slump in music sales rather than the timing of the two albums. it s unusual to see this much of a downgrade just because of phasing he said.
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what really divides the parties so what is the gap between labour and the tories nowadays one starbucks one rymans and one small greek cafe as it happens. both parties have now completed their moves to new headquarters with labour creating its election hub just three doors away from the tories new headquarters in victoria street just down the road from the commons. that should make things a little easier if and when the crack-of-dawn election press conferences kick off. unlike 2001 there should be no need for colleagues to have taxis gunning their engines outside or to buy scooters to get themselves between the tightly-timetabled events. and to all intents and purposes we already appear to be in that general election campaign. certainly the press conference hosted by election co-ordinator alan milburn in the rather compact new conference room - still smelling of new carpet and with the garish new labour coffee mugs as yet unstained - had all the hallmarks of an election event. welcome to the unremittingly new labour media centre he said. and i ll bet he hadn t checked that one with gordon brown. along with work and pensions secretary alan johnson and minister for work jane kennedy he then went on to tear into the tory plans to scrap the new deal welfare-to-work scheme which they claimed would lead to an increase of almost 300 000 in unemployment. and they ridiculed the claims made on monday by michael howard that he could save £35 billion of labour waste and inefficiency to spend on public services while also offering £4 billion of tax cuts. labour has come up with a figure of £22 billions worth of efficiency savings so understandably perhaps believe mr howard must be planning cuts to squeeze the extra £13 billion. these figures based on the two parties own detailed studies will be battered to within an inch of their lives during the campaign. wednesday was just the start.
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tottenham bid £8m for forest duo nottingham forest have confirmed they have received an £8m bid from tottenham for andy reid and michael dawson. reid rejected a move to southampton after forest accepted a cash-plus-players offer while spurs had made previous bids for the 22-year-old. spurs had also made an undisclosed offer for 21-year-old defender dawson. forest chief executive mark arthur said: we ve received an £8m bid from spurs for the two players and we re considering the offer. southampton s offer for republic of ireland international reid comprised £3m-plus and two players - brett ormerod and darren kenton. spurs had seen previous bids of £3m £4m and £5m for reid rejected by the championship club.
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bafta to hand out movie honours movie stars from across the globe are attending this year s bafta film award ceremony. british stars imelda staunton and clive owen are hoping for awards at the odeon in london s leicester square. hollywood stars leonardo dicaprio pierce brosnan christian slater and richard gere are also in the audience for the biggest night in uk film. hollywood blockbuster the aviator starring dicaprio leads the field with 14 nominations including best movie. it is up against eternal sunshine of the spotless mind finding neverland the motorcycle diaries and british film vera drake which has 11 nominations. staunton is one of the favourites to land the best actress award for her gritty role as a backstreet abortionist in the small-budget film. she arrived at the ceremony wearing a green silk and chiffon low cut evening dress decorated with beads. it s lovely to be here at home to be on british soil. it s very nice indeed she told reporters. asked whether she was nervous about her best actress nomination she said: it s out of my hands there s nothing i can do. i m here with a lot of mates and we re going to have a very nice evening. other nominees in the best actress category include charlize theron for monster ziyi zhang for house of flying daggers and uk star kate winslet who has two nods for her roles in eternal sunshine of the spotless mind and finding neverland. dicaprio faces competition from bernal jamie foxx jim carrey and johnny depp in the best actor category. the crowed screamed when he arrived on the red carpet. it s unlike anything i ve ever encountered. it s very intense and very loud he told the bbc. it s the first time i ve come to the baftas because it s the first time i ve been nominated...i ve appreciated british cinema for a long time and to be recognised like this is a special honour. gere who is presenting the best film award said: it s a big party i had no idea it was going to be this big. it s crazy i think it s bigger than the academy awards. british actor owen is hoping to repeat his golden globe success with a best supporting actor award for his role in closer. he raised one of the biggest cheers of the night when he walked down the red carpet. i was always a huge fan of closer as a play so when i got the call to appear in the film it was a huge thrill for me he said. the whole experience has been a treat and i m very fortunate to have been given the role. his co-star natalie portman is up against blanchett heather craney julie cristie and meryl streep in the best supporting actress category. mike leigh is up for the best director award for vera drake alongside martin scorsese for the aviator michael mann for collateral michel gondry for eternal sunshine of the spotless mind and marc forster for finding neverland. the orange british academy film awards will be shown on bbc one at 2010 gmt.
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injury sidelines philippoussis mark philippoussis withdrew from the sydney international tennis tournament as expected on sunday after suffering a groin injury during the hopman cup. his participation in the australian open which begins on 17 january in melbourne also remains in doubt. defending women s champion justine henin-hardenne is also out of the sydney event because of a knee injury. in the only main draw men s or women s singles match on sunday nathalie dechy beat american lisa raymond 7-5 6-3. number one men s seed lleyton hewitt begins his quest for a fourth sydney title on tuesday when he plays karol beck. lindsay davenport top seed in the women s draw has been handed a first-round bye and plays france s dechy in the second round on tuesday.
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lse doubts boost bidders shares shares in deutsche boerse have risen more than 3% after a shareholder fund voiced opposition to the firm s planned takeover of the london stock exchange. tci which claims to represent owners of 5% of deutsche boerse s (db) shares has complained that the £1.35bn ($2.5bn) offer for the lse is too high. opposition from tci has fuelled speculation that the proposed takeover could fail. rival exchange operator euronext has also said it may bid for the lse. euronext operates the paris amsterdam brussels and lisbon bourses while deutsche boerse runs the frankfurt exchange. bbc news spoke to a number of analysts on monday morning about shareholder worries over deutsche boerse s bid for lse. although none were prepared to speak on the record most thought it was unlikely that tci s opposition would halt the deal obviously we ll have to wait and see but i don t think it will make much difference. deutsche boerse appears very committed said one london-based broker. he forecast the takeover bid would succeed and was more concerned to see improvements in the daily running of the lse. in voicing its opposition to the planned takeover tci said it would prefer to see deutsche boerse return $500m (£350m) to shareholders. the deutsche boerse was prepared to pay for the lse exceeds the potential benefits of this acquisition said tci. another deutsche boerse shareholder on monday also appeared to back tci s call. another investor in deutsche boerse has supported the view that a payout to shareholders would be preferable to deutsche boerse overpaying for the lse reuters news agency reported. we prefer a sensible entrepreneurial solution at a price that is not too high said rolf dress a spokesman for union investment. if that cannot be achieved then we would wish for a distribution of liquid assets to shareholders. the financial times also reported a third deutsche boerse shareholder as opposed to the deal. it quoted a spokesman for us-based hedge fund atticus capital complaining that the planned takeover appeared to be motivated by empire-building rather than the best interests of shareholders. tci has called for deutsche boerse to hold an emergency general meeting to discuss the bid for lse. yet under german business law db does not have to gain shareholder approval before making a significant acquisition. deutsche boerse said tci s opposition would not change its bid approach. deutsche boerse is convinced that its contemplated cash acquisition of the london stock exchange is in the best interests of its shareholders and the company it said. db s shares were up 3.4% to 45.25 euros by 1030 gmt the highest gainer in frankfurt.
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minister digs in over doping row the belgian sports minister at the centre of the svetlana kuznetsova doping row says he will not apologise for making allegations against her. claude eerdekens claims the us open champion tested positive for ephedrine at an exhibition event last month. criticised for making the announcement he said: i will never apologise. this product is banned and it s up to her to explain why it s there. kuznetsova says the stimulant may have been in a cold remedy she took. the russian said she did nothing wrong by taking the medicine during the event. the women s tennis association cleared kuznetsova of any offence because the drug is not banned when taken out of competition. eerdekens said he made the statement in order to protect the other three players that took part in the tournament belgian justine henin-hardenne nathalie dechy of france and russia s elena dementieva. but dechy is fuming that she has been implicated in the row. how can you be happy when you see your face on the cover page and talking about doping dechy said. i m really upset about it and i think the belgian government did a really bad job about this. i think we deserve an apology from the guy. you cannot say anything like this - you cannot say some stuff like this saying it s one of these girls. this is terrible. dementieva is also angry and says that dechy and herself are the real victims of the scandal. you have no idea what i have been through all these days. it s been too hard on me she said. the wta are trying to handle this problem by saying there are three victims but i see only two victims in this story - me and nathalie dechy who really have nothing to do with this. to be honest with you i don t feel like i want to talk to sveta at all. i m just very upset with the way everything has happened.
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sport
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snow patrol feted at irish awards snow patrol were the big winners in ireland s top music honours the meteor awards picking up accolades for best irish band and album on thursday. the belfast-born glasgow-based band collected the prizes at the ceremony at dublin s point theatre. westlife won the award for best irish pop act voted for by the public beating former member brian mcfadden. franz ferdinand picked up best international band and album while paddy casey collected best irish male. singer-songwriter casey beat brian mcfadden and damien rice. juliette turner was named best irish female. in the international categories morrissey beat eminem usher and robbie williams to best male while pj harvey pipped kylie minogue joss stone anastacia and natasha bedingfield to the female crown. the 8 000 fans at the ceremony were treated to performances from us rapper snoop dogg brian mcfadden with delta goodrem and the thrills featuring rolling stones star ronnie wood. snow patrol s success came after a year in which they made a chart breakthrough with their third album final straw. i think a lot of bands should go through a wee bit of a kicking before the make a success singer gary lightbody and drummer jonny quinn said. it has been good for us but also hard for us over the past six years. snow patrol will support u2 on their european tour later this year - but u2 were not nominated for best irish band and album.
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entertainment
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beckham relief as real go through david beckham expressed his relief at real madrid s passage to the champions league knockout phase. after real s 3-0 win at roma the england skipper admitted another season of under-achievement would not be tolerated at the bernabeu stadium. beckham said: it s expected of madrid to get through but it s a relief for the club and players to have won. we lost momentum last season but we cannot afford to to go another season without winning anything. real s finish as runners-up in their champions league group means they cannot face his old club manchester united in the next round. but real could be drawn against other premiership hopefuls arsenal or chelsea who won their respective groups. it s going to be great whoever we play even if we don t get either of the two english teams.
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no uk premiere for rings musical the producers behind the lord of the rings musical have abandoned plans to premiere the show in london because no suitable theatre was available. the £11.5m show will make its debut in toronto in march 2006 after it was found that all three west end theatres with sufficient capacity were booked. the musical is not expected in london before december 2006. producer kevin wallace said it would be worth waiting for . it will be like nothing they have ever seen before. i know there will be a lot of disappointed british tolkien fans who hoped to see the show in london but we couldn t get a london theatre in time added the british producer. the world premiere of the stage musical co-produced by canadian theatrical impresarios david and ed mirvish will take place at toronto s princess of wales theatre next year. toronto really wanted this premiere. the tolkien books and films are hugely popular in canada said mr wallace shortly after signing the deal in canada. we hope the anticipation and excitement over here will create an even bigger buzz by the time we open in london. auditions begin in canada on thursday but up to five british actors may join the cast under a deal struck with canadian actors equity. the music for the show is being written by bollywood composer ar rahman who was behind andrew lloyd webber s west end musical bollywood dreams and in conjuction with the finnish group varttina. there will be no singing and dancing hobbits. the music will be in a very traditional mould and draw on ethnic traditions assured mr wallace. the musical s british director is matthew warchus best known for staging the worldwide stage hit art. the production will be a hybrid of text physical theatre music and spectacle never previously seen on this scale he said. only in the theatre are we actually plunged into the events as they happen. the environment surrounds us and we are in middle earth. new zealander peter jackson took 10 years to bring jrr tolkien s fantasy trilogy to the big screen winning academy awards for best film and best director for the final film the return of the king in 2004.
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entertainment
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hewitt fights back to reach final lleyton hewitt kept his dream of an australian open title alive with a four-set win over andy roddick in friday s second semi-final. the home favourite will face marat safin in sunday s final after coming through 3-6 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-4) 6-1. hewitt fought back from a set down and trailed in both tie-breaks but would not be denied thrilling the melbourne crowd with a typically battling effort. he is aiming to be the first australian winner since mark edmondson in 1976. hewitt is the first australian to make the final since pat cash lost to mats wilander in 1988 but faces a huge challenge against safin - the conqueror of roger federer. after needing five sets in his last two matches there was reason to think hewitt might struggle for fitness. he certainly made a sluggish start dropping his opening service game and roddick dominated with his huge serve as he took the first set. after 12 tense games in the second the key moment came when hewitt raised his game in the tie-break to overturn an early mini-break. that energised the crowd but roddick was not finished and raced 4-1 clear in the crucial third before hewitt pegged him back and forced another tie-break. again roddick broke first and again hewitt fought back taking the lead with a superb backhand pass. the australian was not to be denied and a disheartened roddick made little impact in the fourth set as hewitt raced to victory sending the melbourne crowd wild and ensuring the final will be a huge occasion. it s awesome said hewitt. i started preparing for this tournament nine months ago. i ve done a lot of hard yards to get here. i ve always said i d do anything to get in the first night final at the australian open. now i ve got my chance. roddick was furious with himself for failing to take advantage of leads in both tie-breaks. i m usually pretty money in those said roddick. either one of those would have given me a distinct advantage. i m mad i felt i was in there with a shot. he put himself in position to win big points. i donated a little more than i would have wanted. and the american played down the influence of one spectator who appeared to contribute to a double fault by shouting during rodick s service action. it just took one jackass to shout out said roddick adding that the crowd overall was very respectful .
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sport
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iran jails blogger for 14 years an iranian weblogger has been jailed for 14 years on charges of spying and aiding foreign counter-revolutionaries. arash sigarchi was arrested last month after using his blog to criticise the arrest of other online journalists. mr sigarchi who also edits a newspaper in northern iran was sentenced by a revolutionary court in the gilan area. his sentence criticised by human rights watchdog reporters without borders comes a day after an online day of action to secure his release. iranian authorities have recently clamped down on the growing popularity of weblogs restricting access to major blogging sites from within iran. a second iranian blogger motjaba saminejad who also used his website to report on bloggers arrests is still being held. a spokesman for reporters without borders which tracks press freedom across the globe described mr sigarchi s sentence as harsh and called on iranian president mohammed khatami to work to secure his immediate release. the authorities are trying to make an example of him the organisation said in a statement. by handing down this harsh sentence against a weblogger their aim is to dissuade journalists and internet-users from expressing themselves online or contacting foreign media. in the days before his arrest mr sigarchi gave interviews to the bbc persian service and the us-funded radio farda. iranian authorities have arrested about 20 online journalists during the current crackdown. they accused mr sigarchi of a string of crimes against iranian state including espionage insulting the founder of iran s islamic republic ayatollah ruhollah khomenei and current supreme leader ayatollah ali khamenei. mr sigarchi s lawyer labelled the revolutionary court illegal and incompetent and called for a retrial in a public court. mr sigarchi was sentenced one day after an online campaign highlighted his case in a day of action in defence of bloggers around the world. the committee to protect bloggers designated 22 february 2005 as free mojtaba and arash day. around 10 000 people visited the campaign s website during the day. about 12% of users were based in iran the campaign s director told the bbc news website. curt hopkins said mr sigarchi s sentence would not dent the resolve of bloggers joining the campaign to help highlight the case. the eyes of 8 million bloggers are going to be more focused on iran since sigarchi s sentence not less. the mullahs won t be able to make a move without it be spread across the blogosphere.
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tech
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broadband takes on tv viewing the number of europeans with broadband has exploded over the past 12 months with the web eating into tv viewing habits research suggests. just over 54 million people are hooked up to the net via broadband up from 34 million a year ago according to market analysts nielsen/netratings. the total number of people online in europe has broken the 100 million mark. the popularity of the net has meant that many are turning away from tv say analysts jupiter research. it found that a quarter of web users said they spent less time watching tv in favour of the net the report by nielsen/netratings found that the number of people with fast internet access had risen by 60% over the past year. the biggest jump was in italy where it rose by 120%. britain was close behind with broadband users almost doubling in a year. the growth has been fuelled by lower prices and a wider choice of always-on fast-net subscription plans. twelve months ago high speed internet users made up just over one third of the audience in europe; now they are more than 50% and we expect this number to keep growing said gabrielle prior nielsen/netratings analyst. as the number of high-speed surfers grows websites will need to adapt update and enhance their content to retain their visitors and encourage new ones. the total number of europeans online rose by 12% to 100 million over the past year the report showed with the biggest rise in france italy britain and germany. the ability to browse web pages at high speed download files such as music or films and play online games is changing what people do in their spare time. a study by analysts jupiter research suggested that broadband was challenging television viewing habits. in homes with broadband 40% said they were spending less time watching tv. the threat to tv was greatest in countries where broadband was on the up in particular the uk france and spain said the report. it said tv companies faced a major long-term threat over the next five years with broadband predicted to grow from 19% to 37% of households by 2009. year-on-year we are continuing to see a seismic shift in where when and how europe s population consume media for information and entertainment and this has big implications for tv newspaper and radio said jupiter research analyst olivier beauvillian.
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tech
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faith schools citizenship warning schools must improve the quality of citizenship lessons - or social cohesion and democracy will suffer says the education watchdog. independent faith schools were singled out by ofsted chief david bell for not doing enough to promote the wider tenets of british society . mr bell said muslim jewish and evangelical christian schools must be intolerant of intolerance . diversity certainly must not mean segregated or separate he said. mr bell s speech called for a much greater effort in all types of schools to teach citizenship - with an accompanying survey showing that young people knew little about politics and had no enthusiasm to find out more. badly-taught citizenship lessons have previously been criticised by mr bell and in a speech to the hansard society he warned that it was failing to pass on an understanding of democracy public service and shared values. he highlighted his particular concern for citizenship in the growing number of independent faith schools - which he said included about 100 muslim 100 evangelical christian and 50 jewish schools. mr bell expressed concern about schools which did not teach children enough about a common heritage and needed to do more to promote principles of mutual tolerance and social inclusion. i worry that many young people are being educated in faith-based schools with little appreciation of their wider responsibilities and obligations to british society said mr bell. the ofsted chief said his forthcoming annual report would make particular reference to muslim schools. many must adapt their curriculum to ensure that it provides pupils with a broad general knowledge of public institutions and services in england and helps them to acquire an appreciation of and respect for other cultures in a way that promotes tolerance and harmony. mr bell said such questions of religion and cultural identity were tricky issues . but he argued that we must not allow our recognition of diversity to become apathy in the face of any challenge to our coherence as a nation . i would go further and say that an awareness of our common heritage as british citizens equal under the law should enable us to assert with confidence that we are intolerant of intolerance illiberalism and attitudes and values that demean the place of certain sections of our community be they women or people living in non-traditional relationships said mr bell.
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politics
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british library gets wireless net visitors to the british library will be able to get wireless internet access alongside the extensive information available in its famous reading rooms. broadband wireless connectivity will be made available in the eleven reading rooms the auditorium café restaurant and outdoor piazza area. a study revealed that 86% of visitors to the library carried laptops. the technology has been on trial since may and usage levels make the library london s most active public hotspot. previously many were leaving the building to go to a nearby internet café to access their e-mail the study found. at the british library we are continually exploring ways in which technology can help us to improve services to our users said lynne brindley chief executive of the british library. surveys we conducted recently confirmed that alongside the materials they consult here our users want to be able to access the internet when they are at the library for research or to communicate with colleagues she said. the service will be priced at £4.50 for an hour s session or £35 for a monthly pass. the study conducted by consultancy building zones found that 16% of visitors came to the library to sit down and use it as a business centre. this could be because of its proximity to busy mainline stations such as kings cross and euston. the study also found that people were spending an average of six hours in the building making it an ideal wireless hotspot. since may the service has registered 1 200 sessions per week making it london s most active public hotspot. the majority of visitors wanted to be able to access their e-mail as well as the british library catalogue. the service has been rolled out in partnership with wireless provider the cloud and hewlett packard. it will operate independently from the library s existing network. the british library receives around 3 000 visitors each day and serves around 500 000 readers each year. people come to view resources which include the world s largest collection of patents and the uk s most extensive collection of science technology and medical information. the library receives between three and four million requests from remote users around the world each year.
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tech
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ore costs hit global steel firms shares in steel firms have dropped worldwide amid concerns that higher iron ore costs will hit profit growth. shares in germany s thyssenkrupp the uk s corus and france s arcleor fell while japan s nippon steel slid after it agreed to pay 72% more for iron ore. china s baoshan iron and steel co. said it was delaying a share sale because of weak market conditions adding it would raise steel prices to offset ore costs. the threat of higher raw material costs also hit industries such as carmakers. france s peugeot warned that its profits may decline this year as a result of the higher steel plastic and commodity prices. steelmakers have been enjoying record profits as demand for steel has risen driven by the booming economies of countries such as china and india. steel prices rose by 8% globally in january alone and by 24% in china. the boom times are far from over but analysts say that earnings growth may slow. the share price fall was initially triggered by news that two of the world s biggest iron ore suppliers had negotiated contracts at much-higher prices. miners rio tinto and cia. vale do rio dolce (cvrd) this week managed to boost by 72% the price of their iron ore a key component of steel. analysts had expected japan s nippon to agree to a price rise of between 40% and 50%. steel analyst peter fish director of sheffield-based consulting group meps said the extent of cvrd s price rise was uncharted territory adding that the steel industry hasn t seen an increase of this magnitude probably in 50 years . analysts now expect other iron ore producers such as australia s bhp billiton to seek annual price rises of up to 70%. the news triggered the share price weakness. it sparked worries that steel makers might not be able to increase product prices further [ to cover rising ore costs] explained kazuhiro takahashi of daiwa securities smbc. in europe arcelor shed 2.1% to 17.58 euros in paris with thyssenkrupp dropping 1.7% to 16.87 euros. in london corus fell 2.2% to 55.57 pence. japan s biggest steel company nippon steel lost 2.5% to 270 yen with closest rival jfe holdings down 3.4%. china s baoshan the country s largest steel producer said that the uncertainty surrounding the industry has prompted it to pull its planned share sale. the firm had been expected to offer 22.5bn yuan ($2.7bn) worth of shares to investors. no date has been given for when the 5 billion shares will come to the market. baoshan stock climbed on news of the delay and its decision to increase the price of its steel by 10%.
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business
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uk young top euro earnings league british children enjoy the highest average annual income in europe - more than double that of spanish or italian youngsters a report suggests. children in the uk between the ages of 10 and 17 had an annual income of £775 said market analyst datamonitor. they use pester power to get their parents to stump up nearly a third of this income the report said. as for how they spend their cash the bulk goes on personal care soft drinks and food datamonitor said. datamonitor adds that british teenagers are keen on personal care because it helps them combine two seemingly contradictory emotional needs - the desire to fit in and the desire to express their individuality. british teenage girls compared to their counterparts in seven european countries are the most keen to use make-up products. nearly three out of four girls said they used make-up. according to the datamonitor report the trend marked british teenagers out as particularly important to cosmetics manufacturers as they are likely to experiment more with brands and products and form long-term beauty routines . and the good times are likely to keep rolling for british children as the report predicts that they will still be topping the earnings table in 2008.
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business
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aaliyah claim dismissed by court late r&b star aaliyah s record company has failed in an attempt to sue the video producer who booked the ill-fated flight on which she died in 2001. a new york appeals court has told blackground records that only the singer s parents had the right to launch a claim for wrongful death. the 22-year-old singer s family came to an undisclosed settlement over a negligence claim in 2003. aaliyah had completed a music video when the plane crashed in the bahamas. she and eight others were killed on the plane which crashed as if left for florida. blackground records lawyer frank penski said he had yet to examine the decision and did not know whether they would pursue the case. an investigation into the crash revealed the twin-engined cessna was overloaded by 700 pounds (320kg). a post-mortem carried out on the remains of the pilot showed there was cocaine and alcohol in his body. aaliyah was a rising star in music and film before she was killed. she was honoured with a string of posthumous awards and her single more than a woman went to number one in the uk.
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entertainment
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almagro continues spanish surge unseeded nicolas almagro became the fifth spaniard to reach the last eight at the buenos aires open ousting eighth seed mariano zabaleta. he showed admirable resolve to win a rain-affected match 6-7 6-4 6-4. compatriot and seventh seed rafael nadal also reached the last eight beating italian potito starace 6-1 6-3. nadal playing in the outdoor clay event for the first time hit some powerful forehands to oust starace in a match delayed over an hour by rain. it s always a problem to have to stop for rain but one gets used to it said spanish teenager nadal. luckily i was able to keep my pace going throughout the match. he will now play gaston gaudio who beat unseeded brazilian flavio saretta 6-3 6-2 in the day s late match.
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sport
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robinson out of six nations england captain jason robinson will miss the rest of the six nations because of injury. robinson stand-in captain in the absence of jonny wilkinson had been due to lead england in their final two games against italy and scotland. but the sale full-back pulled out of the squad on wednesday because of a torn ligament in his right thumb. the 30-year-old will undergo an operation on friday but england have yet to name a replacement skipper. robinson said: this is very disappointing for me as this means i miss england s last two games in the six nations at twickenham and two games for my club sale sharks. but i m looking to be back playing very early in april. robinson picked up the injury in the 19-13 defeat to ireland at lansdowne road on saturday. and coach andy robinson said: i am hugely disappointed for jason. as england captain he has been an immense figure during the autumn internationals and the six nations leading by example at all times. i look forward to having him back in the england squad. the announcement is the latest setback for robinson s injury-depleted squad. among the key figures already missing are jonny wilkinson mike tindall will greenwood julian white and phil vickery - a list which leaves robinson short on candidates for the now vacant captaincy role. former england skipper jeremy guscott told bbc radio five live his choice would be matt dawson even though he is does not hold a regular starting place. the obvious choice is dawson said guscott. especially given that harry ellis did not have his best game at scrum-half on saturday. dawson has the credentials and the experience even though his winning record at captain is not great. the other option in martin corry who is the standout forward at the moment. unfortunately england cannot rely on leaders on the field at the moment. england will announce their squad for the 12 march game against italy on saturday.
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sport
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mourinho takes swipe at arsenal chelsea boss jose mourinho has attempted to pile the pressure on title rivals arsenal ahead of the gunners facing newcastle on wednesday. arsenal will play the magpies a day after chelsea beat portsmouth during a busy festive programme. and mourinho said: they always seem to have two or three days rest in which to recover. perhaps it s something to do with the television schedule. all my players are tired especially john terry. chelsea boss jose mourinho admitted his side were lucky to win at fratton park but is still unhappy with the amount of games in such a short space of time during this time of year. he added: we have had to play two matches in three days which is foreign to many of my players and although i understand the traditions of football here at this time of year it is not good for your health to do it. you can sit back and smoke cigars one after another and it is a good life but it is not actually good for you. playing so many games is certainly not healthy especially for teams who still have european commitment.
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sport
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us bank in $515m sec settlement five bank of america subsidiaries have agreed to pay a total of $515m (£277m) to settle an investigation into fraudulent trading share practices. the us securities and exchange commission announced the settlements the latest in an industry-wide clean-up of us mutual funds. the sec also said it had brought fraud charges against two ex-senior executives of columbia distributor. columbia distributor was part of fleetboston bought by boa last year. three other ex-columbia executives agreed settlements with the sec. the sec has set itself the task of stamping out the mutual funds use of market-timing a form of quick-fire short-term share trading that harms the interests of small investors with whom mutual funds are particularly popular. in the last two years it has imposed penalties totalling nearly $2bn on 15 funds. the sec unveiled two separate settlements one covering boa s direct subsidiaries and another for businesses that were part of fleetboston at the time. in both cases it said there had been secret deals to engage in market timing in mutual fund shares. the sec agreed a deal totalling $375m with banc of america capital management bacap distributors and banc of america securities. it was made up of $250m to pay back gains from market timing and $125m in penalties. it is to be paid to the damaged funds and their shareholders. separately the sec said it had reached a $140m deal - equally split between penalties and compensation - in its probe into columbia management advisors (cam) and columbia funds distributor (cfd) and three ex-columbia executives. these businesses became part of boa when it snapped up rival bank fleetboston in a $47bn merger last march. the sec filed civil fraud charges in a boston federal court against james tambone who it says headed cfd s sales operations and his alleged second in command robert hussey. the sec is pressing for the highest tier of financial penalties against the pair for multiple violations repayment of any personal gains and an injunction to prevent future breaches a spokeswoman for the sec s boston office told the bbc. there was no immediate comment from the men s lawyers. the sec s settlement with cam and cfd included agreements with three other ex-managers peter martin erik gustafson and joseph palombo who paid personal financial penalties of between $50-100 000.
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business
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parties plans for council tax anger at council tax rises spilled over into mass protests in 2003 when the average english bill rose 12.9%. pensioners protests spread - some marched others simply refused to pay the increase. some such as 83-year-old elizabeth winkfield said they would rather go to jail. the audit commission found the whole local government finance system was fundamentally flawed and all three of the main parties have said the system has to change. labour says it wants to retain the property-based tax but reform it to make it fairer and says there is scope for councils to become more efficient. they say they are already helping pensioners with council tax bills with a £100 lump sum for the over-70s and last year the government capped some local councils budgets to keep demands down. deputy prime minister john prescott has said the current system is not sustainable in the long term and said there would be radical reform . the party says this year s increases will be the lowest in a decade. a report last year looked at increasing the number of council tax bands and other forms of local taxation such as reformed business rates although no decisions have been made. an independent inquiry into its findings the lyons review is due to report back at the end of 2005. the tories have promised a reduction on bills for pensioners who they say have been hardest hit by year-on-year increases in council tax. they say they can save £4bn on government waste of which £1.3bn could be used to cut pensioners bills by an average of £340. it would not be means tested say the tories because that would create more bureaucracy and could discourage people from saving for their retirement. instead households where council tax payers are over 65 would get a rebate covering half their bill up to a maximum of £500. the tories also say they are suspicious about any proposals to revalue homes - currently graded according to their value in 1991 - because they believe seven million of homes could move up a band. the liberal democrats want to do away with the council tax altogether and switch to a local income tax of the kind seen in the usa norway and switzerland. the rate would be set locally but administered by the inland revenue which they say would save at least £300m. they say the council tax is the most unpopular and most unfair tax in britain because it puts a ceiling on what the richest pay. the party says it would aim for a £5 000 tax-free personal allowance or a £7 000 allowance for the over-65s. after that income would be taxed up to £100 000. the lib dems say their plan is fairer more efficient has already been tested abroad and offers more accountability.
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politics
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fannie mae should restate books us mortgage company fannie mae should restate its earnings a move that is likely to put a billion-dollar dent in its accounts watchdogs have said. the securities & exchange commission accused fannie mae of using techniques that did not comply in material respects with accounting standards. fannie mae last month warned that some records were incorrect. the other main us mortgage firm freddie mac restated earnings by $5bn (£2.6bn) last year after a probe of its books. the sec s comments are likely to increase pressure on congress to strengthen supervision of fannie mae and freddie mac. the two firms are key parts of the us financial system and effectively underwrite the mortgage market financing nearly half of all american house purchases and dealing actively in bonds and other financial instruments. the investigation of freddie mac in june 2003 sparked concerns about the wider health of the industry and raised questionsmarks over the role of the office of federal housing enterprise oversight (ofheo) the industry s main regulator. having been pricked into action the ofheo turned its attention to fannie may and in september this year said that the firm had tweaked its books to spread earnings more smoothly across quarters and play down the amount of risk it had taken on. the sec found similar problems. the watchdog s chief accountant donald nicolaisen said that fannie mae s methodology of assessing measuring and documenting hedge ineffectiveness was inadequate and was not supported by generally accepted accounting principles.
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business
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apple laptop is greatest gadget the apple powerbook 100 has been chosen as the greatest gadget of all time by us magazine mobile pc. the 1991 laptop was chosen because it was one of the first lightweight portable computers and helped define the layout of all future notebook pcs. the magazine has compiled an all-time top 100 list of gadgets which includes the sony walkman at number three and the 1956 zenith remote control at two. gadgets needed moving parts and/or electronics to warrant inclusion. the magazine staff compiled the list and specified that gadgets also needed to be a self-contained apparatus that can be used on its own not a subset of another device . in general we included only items that were potentially mobile said the magazine. in the end we tried to get to the heart of what really makes a gadget a gadget it concluded. the oldest gadget in the top 100 is the abacus which the magazine dates at 190 a.d. and put in 60th place. other pre-electronic gadgets in the top 100 include the sextant from 1731 (59th position) the marine chronometer from 1761 (42nd position) and the kodak brownie camera from 1900 (28th position). the tivo personal video recorder is the newest device to make the top 10 which also includes the first flash mp3 player (diamond multimedia) as well as the first successful digital camera (casio qv-10) and mobile phone (motorola startac). the most popular gadget of the moment the apple ipod is at number 12 in the list while the first sony transistor radio is at number 13. sony s third entry in the top 20 is the cdp-101 cd player from 1983. who can forget the crystalline hiss-free blast of madonna s like a virgin emanating from their first cd player asked the magazine. karl elsener s knife the swiss army knife from 1891 is at number 20 in the list. gadgets which could be said to feature surprisingly low down in the list include the original telephone (23rd) the nintendo gameboy (25th) and the pulsar quartz digital watch (36th). the list also contains plenty of oddities: the pez sweet dispenser (98th) 1990s toy tamagotchi (86th) and the bizarre ronco inside the shell egg scrambler (84th). almost everyone has a mobile phone how many people own a powerbook or an ipod the findings of this magazine are not very convincing. what about the magnetic compass we still use it 1 000 years after it was invented. i am amazed by the obsession with individual gadgets rather than genre. for example the sony walkman was the first truly portable way of listening to your own music on the move whereas minidisc flash mp3 portable cd players etc. are really just improvements in technology. my favourite true gadgets are probably my portable minidisc player and the little battery powered whizzy thing i use to froth up my coffee! calm down it s only in their opinion and any list that includes the taser in the top 100 gadgets has to be suspect.... swiss army knife and no question about it. how many of the other items are still relatively unchanged from the original idea and still as useful/popular you don t need a laptop or even a pocket calculator to work that one out! this list merely illustrates interesting cultural divides between the american authors and the overwhelmingly british responses. brits see no further than mobile phones and the over thirties sinclair; whilst the americans focus on apple tv remotes and tivo (which probably is rather obscure in europe). what about the soda stream. this gadget changed my pre-teen life. lap tops may enable you to think different but you cant use them to get busy with the fizzy how about astro wars one of the pioneers for computer games i remember spending many an hour playing this and it still works today! however tried it the other day and it was rubbish still a great gadget of its time. why worry about mobile phones. soon they will be subsumed into the pda s / laptops etc. what about the marine chronometer completely revolutionised navigation for boats and was in use for centuries. for it s time a technological marvel! sony net minidisc! it paved the way for more mp3 player to explode onto the market. i always used my netmd and could not go anywhere without it. a laptop computer is not a gadget! it s a working tool! the sinclair executive was the world s first pocket calculator. i think this should be there as well. how about the clockwork radio or gps or a pocket calculator all these things are useful to real people not just pc magazine editors. are the people who created this list insane surely the most important gadget of the modern age is the mobile phone it has revolutionised communication which is more than can be said for a niche market laptop. from outside the modern age the marine chronometer is the single most important gadget without which modern transportation systems would not have evolved so quickly. has everyone forgot about the breville pie maker an interesting list. of the electronic gadgets thousands of journalists in the early 1980s blessed the original noteboook pc - the tandy 100. the size of a4 paper and light three weeks on a set of batteries an excellent keyboard a modem. a pity tandy did not make it dos compatible. what s an apple powerbook 100 it s out of date - not much of a gadget . surely it has to be something simple / timeless - the tin opener swiss army knife safety razor blade wristwatch or the thing for taking stones out of horses hooves it has to be the mobile phone. no other single device has had such an effect on our way of living in such a short space of time. the ball point pen has got to be one of the most used and common gadgets ever. also many might be grateful for the pocket calculator which was a great improvement over the slide rule. the casio pocket calculator that played a simple game and made tinny noises was also a hot gadget in 1980. a true gadget it could be carried around and shown off. all top 10 are electronic toys so the list is probably a better reflection of the current high-tech obsession than anything else. i say this as the swiss army knife only made no 20. sinclair ql a machine far ahead of its time. the first home machine with a true multi-takings os. shame the marketing was so bad!!! apple.. a triumph of fashion over... well everything else. utter rubbish. yes the apple laptop and sony walkman are classic gadgets. but to call the sextant and the marine chronometer gadgets and rank them as less important than a tv remote control reveals a quite shocking lack of historical perspective. the former literally helped change the world by vastly improving navigation at see. the latter is the seed around which the couch potato culture has developed. no competition. i d also put apple s newton and the first palm pilot there as the front runners for portable computing and possibly the toshiba libretto for the same reason. i only wish that vulcan inc s flipstart wasn t just vapourware otherwise it would be at the top. how did a laptop ever manage to beat off the challenge of the wristwatch or the telephone (mobile or otherwise) what about radios and tvs the swiss army knife. by far the most useful gadget. i got mine 12 years ago. still wearing and using it a lot! it stood the test of time. psion organiser series 3 should be up there. had a usable qwerty keyboard removable storage good set of apps and programmable. case design was good (batteries in the hinge - a first i think). great product innovation. the first mobile pc was voted best gadget by readers of...err... mobile pc ! why do you keep putting these obviously biased lists on your site it s obviously the mobile phone or remote control and readers of a less partisan publication would tell you that. the motorola startac should be number one. why there will be mobile phones long after notebook computers and other gadgets are either gone or integrated in communications devices. the psion series 3c! the first most practical way to carry all your info around... i too would back the sinclair spectrum - without this little beauty i would never have moved into the world of it and earn the living that i do now. i d have put the mobile phone high up the list. probably a nokia model. sinclair spectrum - 16k. it plugged into the tv. games were rubbish but it gave me a taste for programming and that s what i do for a living now. i wish more modern notebooks -- even apple s newest offerings -- were more like the pb100. particularly disheartening is the demise of the trackball which has given way to the largely useless trackpad which every notebook on the market today uses. they re invariably inaccurate uncomfortable and cumbersome to use. congratulations to apple a deserved win!
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robots march to us cinema summit animated movie robots has opened at the top of the us and canada box office chart taking $36.5m (£19m) on its first weekend on release. featuring the voices of ewan mcgregor halle berry robin williams and mel brooks robots follows a robot inventor who moves to a big city. vin diesel s family comedy the pacifier fell to the number two spot taking $18.1m (£9.4m). new bruce willis movie hostage opened at number four with $9.8m (£5.1m). however a recut version of mel gibson s the passion of the christ which featured less violence than last year s original movie took just $239 850 (£125 000) despite opening in 957 cinemas. the new version of the film received little publicity and the original version is available across the us on dvd. we certainly had higher expectations than what we got said rob schwartz head of distribution for newmarket films which released the passion of the christ. we were trying to get the film out there hoping it would reach an audience that it didn t quite reach the first time around. it doesn t seem to have worked out quite as well as we had hoped. meanwhile will smith comedy hitch has become the top film at the global box office after taking an estimated $30.1m (£15.6m) over the weekend at cinemas outside north america according to industry website screen daily. it has taken $65.5m (£34.1m) so far buoyed by opening at number one in the uk last weekend and a successful run in germany. the movie which cost a reported $70m (£36.4m) to make has taken $138m (£72m) in the us so far.
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entertainment
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s korea spending boost to economy south korea will boost state spending next year in an effort to create jobs and kick start its sputtering economy. it has earmarked 100 trillion won ($96bn) for the first six months of 2005 60% of its total annual budget. the government s main problems are slumping consumption and a contraction in the construction industry . it aims to create 400 000 jobs and will focus on infrastructure and home building as well as providing public firms with money to hire new workers. the government has set an economic growth rate target of 5% for next year and hinted that would be in danger unless it took action. internal and external economic conditions are likely to remain unfavourable in 2005 the finance and economy ministry said in a statement. it blamed continuing uncertainties such as fluctuating oil prices and foreign exchange rates and stagnant domestic demand that has shown few signs of a quick rebound . in 2004 growth will be between 4.7% and 4.8% the ministry said. not everyone is convinced the plan will work. our primary worry centres on the what we believe is the government s overly optimistic view that its front loading of the budget will be enough to turn the economy around consultancy 4cast said in a report. the problem facing south korea is that many consumers are reeling from the effects of a credit bubble that only recently burst. millions of south koreans are defaulting on their credit card bills and the country s biggest card lender has been hovering on the verge of bankruptcy for months. as part of its spending plans the government said it will ask firms to roll over mortgage loans that come due in the first half of 2005 . it also pledged to look at ways of helping families on low incomes. the government voiced concern about the effect of redundancies in the building trade. given the economic spill over and employment effect in the construction sector a sharp downturn in the construction industry could have other adverse effects the ministry said. as a result south korea will give private companies also will be given the chance to build schools hospitals houses and other public buildings. it also will look at real estate tax system. other plans on the table include promoting new industries such as bio-technology and nano-technology as well as offering increased support to small and medium sized businesses. the focus will be on job creation and economic recovery given that unfavourable domestic and global conditions are likely to dog the korean economy in 2005 the ministry said.
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business
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iaaf awaits greek pair s response kostas kenteris and katerina thanou are yet to respond to doping charges from the international association of athletics federations (iaaf). the greek pair were charged after missing a series of routine drugs tests in tel aviv chicago and athens. they have until midnight on 16 december and an iaaf spokesman said: we re sure their responses are on their way. if they do not respond or their explanations are rejected they will be provisionally banned from competition. they will then face a hearing in front of the greek federation which will ultimately determine their fate. their former coach christos tzekos has also been charged with distributing banned substances. under iaaf rules the athletes could receive a maximum one-year suspension. kenteris and thanou already face a criminal trial after being charged with avoiding a drug test on the eve of the athens olympics and then faking a motorcyle crash. no date for the trial has yet been set and again tzekos is also facing charges. the iaaf issued an official warning to the trio last year after they were discovered training in qatar rather than in crete where they had said they would be. all athletes must inform their national federations where they are at all times so they can be available for out-of-competition drugs tests. but kenteris and thanou then went on to skip tests in tel aviv and chicago when they decided to fly back to greece early. then just before the olympics the pair dramatically missed another test in athens and withdrew from the games.
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sport
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at a glance: tory health checks the uk opposition conservatives have unveiled plans to introduce health checks for immigrants if they win the general election. here s a guide to the plan: people coming to live and work in britain from outside the eu. if they plan to stay six months or more and are from a country with lots of tb they would have to have a chest x-ray and further tests if appropriate. all people from outside the european union who want to stay a year or more will have to undergo a full medical. tuberculosis hepatitis b and hiv. a positive test for tb would automatically mean visa applications being turned down. all other conditions would be dealt with on a case by case basis. people would have to prove they have an acceptable standard of health and are unlikely to be a danger to public health in the uk or impose significant costs or demands on the nhs. they would also if appropriate have to be able to undertake the work or study they applied to come here for. people coming to britain for less than six months would not be medically tested unless they intended to work in health care childcare or teaching. children and pregnant women wanting to live in britain permanently would not have to have a chest x-ray for tb. under 16s would not face tests for hepatitis and hiv. the tories say people fleeing persecution will not be denied sanctuary in britain because of poor health. however they will undergo health checks to ensure they receive the right medical treatment and do not spread infectious diseases. they claim government figures show that tb in england has increased by 25% over the last 10 years and that nearly two-thirds of people with the disease were born overseas. they also believe there should be stricter controls over who comes into britain to ensure they are not a public health risk. they say the plans will protect access to the nhs. applicants will be tested in their home country. only asylum seekers will be tested in the uk once their refugee status is established. home office minister des browne says the government already routinely checks people for tb if they come into the uk for six months or more from high-risk countries. recent medical checks were carried out on 175 000 people at heathrow airport and 10 000 at gatwick. from those tests about 100 infectious cases of tb were found. the tories say 47 other countries across the world impose requirements of this kind. the party has looked at the way the system is operated in australia canada and new zealand. the tory proposals are quite closely modelled on the new zealand system. labour claims the policy is little more than a desperate attempt to catch up with labour s five-year plan for immigration and asylum which was published last week. this says health screening for tb will be targeted on applicants from high-risk areas before they are given entry clearance. those who are diagnosed with the disease would then need to seek treatment at home before being allowed to enter the uk. the liberal democrats have warned labour and the tories they were in danger of pandering to prejudice rather than challenging it .
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hacker threat to apple s itunes users of apple s music jukebox itunes need to update the software to avoid a potential security threat. hackers can build malicious playlist files which could crash the program and let them seize control of the computer by inserting trojan code. a new version of itunes is now available from the apple website which solves the problem. security firm idefence which notified users of the problem recommended that users upgrade to itunes version 4.7.1. the problem affects all users of itunes - windows and mac os - running versions 4.7 and earlier. users can automatically upgrade itunes by opening the look for updates window in the program. the security firm says users should avoid clicking on or accessing playlist files - which have the file extension of .pls or .m3u - which have come from unknown sources. itunes is the world s most popular online music store with more than 200 million songs downloaded since it launched in 2003.
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tech
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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.
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sport
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act on detention ruling uk urged the government must act quickly on the law lords ruling that detention of foreign terror suspects without trial is unlawful mary robinson has said. the former un commissioner for human rights and irish president told radio 4 s today the government s response would be scrutinised internationally. it would be very troubling if the government did not accept the judgement and then work within it she said. home secretary charles clarke has said detainees will not be freed at present. speaking to parliament on his first day in office as home secretary following david blunkett s resignation mr clarke said: i will be asking parliament to renew this legislation in the new year. in the meantime we will be studying the judgement carefully to see whether it is possible to modify our legislation to address the concerns raised by the house of lords. mrs robinson said the law lords ruling was in line with international legal opinion and praised their very decisive eight to one majority. what the law lords did was acknowledge the role of the government but say that there had been a disproportionate use that it amounted to executive detention and it was discriminatory because it didn t apply to british citizens she said. mrs robinson warned that a lack of action by the british government could lead to further action in legal arenas such as the european court of human rights in strasbourg. if the government were not to accept this ruling then there is further redress including possible damages for the individuals who could claim that the government either was tardy or was resisting the implications of the judgement of the law lords. she said a meeting of the club of madrid - a group of former world leaders - to be held in the spanish capital on the march anniversary of the train bombings there would probably discuss the ruling and its implications. i have no doubt that this judgement will be looked at both as a very positive step in clarifying the law and restating the fundamental principles but also the response of the british government will be under quite a clear international scrutiny there. the detainees took their case to the house of lords after the court of appeal backed the home office s powers to hold them without limit or charge. the government opted out of part of the european convention on human rights concerning the right to a fair trial in order to bring in anti-terrorism legislation in response to the 11 september attacks in the us. any foreign national suspected of links with terrorism can be detained or can opt to be deported. the law lords said the rules were incompatible with the european convention on human rights as they allowed detentions in a way that discriminates on the ground of nationality or immigration status . the case was heard by a panel of nine law lords rather than the usual five because of the constitutional importance of the case.
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politics
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spector facing more legal action music producer phil spector is facing legal action from the mother of the actress he has been accused of killing. donna clarkson whose daughter lana was found dead in mr spector s home in february 2003 is seeking unspecified damages in a civil action. the legal action accuses mr spector of murdering the actress at his la home. mr spector is currently free on $1m (£535 000) bail and is awaiting trial. the 64-year-old has denied the killing saying her death was accidental. ms clarkson s legal action filed in los angeles superior court also accuses mr spector of negligence and battery alleging he grabbed hit fought with and restrained lana clarkson before shooting her to death. her lawyers said in a statement: the clarkson family had hoped that there would be some resolution with regard to the criminal proceedings before moving forward with the civil action. however ms clarkson and her family understand that the fair administration of justice takes time and in light of the numerous changes mr spector has made in his legal defence team over the last two years ms clarkson was forced to file the action before (the statute of limitations expired) on 3 february 2005. mr spector known for his work with the beatles has claimed that lana clarkson committed suicide. his lawyers led by bruce cutler have vowed to prove him innocent at trial. mr cutler said: phil did not cause the death of this woman he s not criminally responsible and he s not civilly responsible either. but i m not surprised they filed a suit for money that seems to be de rigueur nowadays. a los angeles superior court judge is expected to set a trial date later this month for spector who was indicted on murder charges in september. roderick lindblom one of ms clarkson s lawyers said: our intent is to let the criminal proceedings go forward and not do anything that would interfere with the prosecution.
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entertainment
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howl helps boost japan s cinemas japan s box office received a 3.8% boost last year with ticket sales worth 211bn yen (£1.08bn). the surge was led by animated movie howl s moving castle which took 20bn yen (£102m) to become the biggest film in japan in 2004. it is expected to match the 30.7bn yen (£157m) record of hayao miyazaki s previous film spirited away. japan motion picture producers figures showed that 170 million cinema admissions were made in japan in 2004. the last samurai starring tom cruise was the biggest foreign movie hit in japan last year taking 13.8bn yen (£70.7m). it was followed by harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban finding nemo and the lord of the rings: the return of the king. the second highest-grossing japanese film was romantic drama crying out love in the centre of the world followed by be with you and pocket monsters advanced generation. japanese films accounted for 37.5% of japan s box office total last year with foreign films taking the remaining 62.5%. this represented a 4.5% gain for the proportion of japanese films in 2004 compared to 2003. the number of japanese films released rose to 310 in 2004 from 287 the previous year. sales of movies on dvd and video amounted to 497bn yen (£2.54bn) for the year.
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entertainment
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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.
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business
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format wars could confuse users technology firms sony philips matsushita and samsung are developing a common way to stop people pirating digital music and video. the firms want to make a system that ensures files play on the hardware they make but also thwarts illegal copying. the move could mean more confusion for consumers already faced by many different and conflicting content control systems experts warned. they say there are no guarantees the system will even prevent piracy. currently many online stores wrap up downloadable files in an own-brand control system that means they can only be played on a small number of media players. systems that limit what people can do with the files they download are known as digital rights management systems. by setting up the alliance to work on a common control system the firms said they hope to end this current fragmentation of file formats. in a joint statement the firms said they wanted to let consumers enjoy appropriately licensed video and music on any device independent of how they originally obtained that content . the firms hope that it will also make it harder for consumers to make illegal copies of the music movies and other digital content they have bought. called the marlin joint development association the alliance will define basic specifications that every device made by the electronics firms will conform to. marlin will be built on technology from rights management firm intertrust as well as an earlier drm system developed by a group known as the coral consortium. the move is widely seen as a way for the four firms to decide their own destiny on content control systems instead of having to sign up for those being pushed by apple and microsoft. confusingly for consumers the technology that comes out of the alliance will sit alongside the content control systems of rival firms such as microsoft and apple. in many ways the different drm systems are akin to the different physical formats such as betamax and vhs that consumers have seen in the past said ian fogg personal technology and broadband analyst at jupiter research. the difference is that it is very fragmented he said. it s not a two-horse race it s a five six seven or even eight-horse race mr fogg said consumers had to be very careful when buying digital content to ensure that it would play on the devices they own. he said currently there were even incompatibilities within drm families. although initiatives such as microsoft s plays for sure program could help remove some of the uncertainty he said life was likely to be confusing for consumers for some time to come. shelley taylor analyst and author of a report about online music services said the locks and limits on digital files were done to maximise the cash that firms can make from consumers. apple s itunes service was a perfect example of this she said. although itunes has been hugely successful apple could not justify its existence if it did not help sell all those ipods she said. she said rampant competition between online music services of which there are now 230 according to recent figures could drive more openness and freer file formats. it always works out that consumer needs win out in the long run she said and the services that win in the long run are the ones that listen to consumers earliest. ms taylor said the limits legal download services place on files could help explain the continuing popularity of file-sharing systems that let people get hold of pirated pop. people want portability she said and with peer-to-peer they have 100% portability. cory doctorow european co-ordinator for the electronic frontier foundation which campaigns for consumers on many cyber-rights issues expressed doubts that the marlin system would achieve its aims. not one of these systems has ever prevented piracy or illegal copying he said. he said many firms readily admit that their drm systems are little protection against skilled attackers such as the organised crime gangs that are responsible for most piracy. instead said mr doctorow drm systems were intended to control the group that electronics firms have most hold over - consumers. the studios and labels perceive an opportunity to sell you your media again and again - the ipod version the auto version the american and uk version the ringtone version and so on.
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tech
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bush to outline toughest budget president bush is to send his toughest budget proposals to date to the us congress seeking large cuts in domestic spending to lower the deficit. about 150 federal programs could be cut or axed altogether as part of a $2.5 trillion (£1.3 trillion) package aimed at curbing the giant us budget deficit. defence spending will rise however while the proposals exclude the cost of continuing military operations in iraq. vice-president dick cheney said the budget was the tightest so far. at the heart of the administration s fifth budget presented to congress on monday is an austere package of domestic measures. these would see discretionary spending rise below the projected level of inflation. such belt-tightening is designed to tackle the massive budget deficit increases of president bush s first term. mr cheney admitted that the budget was the toughest of the bush presidency but argued it was fair and responsible . it is not something we have done with a meat axe nor are we suddenly turning our back on the most needy people in our society he said. the wars in iraq and afghanistan increased expenditure on national security after 9/11 and the 2001 recession wiped out the budget surplus inherited by president bush in 2001 and turned it into a record deficit. the shortfall is projected to rise to $427bn in 2005. education environmental protection and transport initiatives are set to be scaled back as a first step towards reducing the deficit to $230bn by 2009. most controversially the government is seeking to cut the medicaid budget which provides health care to the nation s poorest by $45bn and to reduce farm subsidies by $587m. spending on defence and homeland security is set to increase although not by as much as originally planned. president bush s proposals would see the pentagon s budget rise by $19bn to $419.3bn while homeland security would get an extra $2bn. the budget does not include the cost of running military operations in iraq and afghanistan for which the administration in expected to seek an extra $80bn from congress later this year. also not featuring in the proposals is the cost of funding the administration s radical proposed overhaul of social security provision. some expects believe this could require borrowing of up to $4.5bn trillion over a twenty year period. despite the republicans holding a majority in both houses of congress the proposals will be fiercely contested over the next few months. john mccain a republican senator said he was pleased the administration was prepared to tackle the deficit. with the deficits that we are now running i am glad the president is coming over with a very austere budget he said. however democratic senator kent conrad said the proposals exposed the country to huge financial commitments beyond 2009. the cost of everything he [president bush] advocates explodes he said.
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business
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firefox browser takes on microsoft microsoft s internet explorer has a serious rival in the long-awaited firefox 1.0 web browser which has just been released. few people get excited when some new software is released especially when the program is not a game or a music or movie player. but the release of the first full version of firefox has managed to drum up a respectable amount of pre-launch fervour. fans of the software have banded together to raise cash to pay for an advert in the new york times announcing that version 1.0 of the browser is available. the release of firefox 1.0 on 9 november might even cause a few heads to turn at microsoft because the program is steadily winning people away from the software giant s internet explorer browser. firefox has been created by the mozilla foundation which was started by former browser maker netscape back in 1998. much of the development work done since then has gone into firefox which made its first appearance under this name in february. earlier incarnations but which had the same core technology were called phoenix and firebird. since then the software has been gaining praise and converts not least because of the large number of security problems that have come to light in microsoft s internet explorer. rivals to ie got a boost in late june when two us computer security organisations warned people to avoid the microsoft program to avoid falling victim to a serious vulnerability. internet monitoring firm websidestory has charted the growing population of people using the firefox browser and says it is responsible for slowly eroding the stranglehold of ie. before july this year according to websidestory internet explorer was used by about 95% of web surfers. that figure had remained static for years. in july the ie using population dropped to 94.7% and by the end of october stood at 92.9%. the mozilla foundation claims that firefox has been downloaded almost eight million times and has publicly said it would be happy to garner 10% of the windows- using net-browsing population. firefox is proving popular because at the moment it has far fewer security holes than internet explorer and has some innovations lacking in microsoft s program. for instance firefox allows the pages of different websites to be arranged as tabs so users can switch easily between them. it blocks pop-ups has a neat way of finding text on a page and lets you search through the pages you have browsed. one of the most powerful features of firefox is the many hundreds of extras or extensions produced for it. the mozilla foundation is an open source organisation which means that the creators of the browser are happy for others to play around with the core code for the program. this has resulted in many different add-ons or extensions for the browser which now include everything from a version of the familiar google toolbar to a homeland security monitor that keep users aware of current threat levels. firefox which used to be called firebird and before that phoenix also has a growing number of vocal net-based fans. a campaign co-ordinated by the spread firefox website attempted to raise the $50 000 needed for a full page advert in the new york times. the campaign set itself a target of recruiting 2500 volunteers. ten days in to the campaign 10 000 people had signed up and now about $250 000 has been raised. the ad is due to run sometime in a three-week period in late november/early december. the surplus cash will be used to help keep the mozilla foundation running. microsoft is facing a growing challenge to ie s hold on the web using population. from alternative browsers such as opera safari amaya and even netscape.
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tarantino to direct csi episode film director quentin tarantino is to direct an episode of us television series csi: crime scene investigation. the oscar-winning pulp fiction director has also written an original story for the season finale episode. csi s co-producer carol mendelsohn said the episode would have more bugs and blood than usual. it is not tarantino s first venture into tv. in 1995 he directed an episode of the medical drama er and has also appeared in alias. ms mendelsohn said the production team had been trying for a while to get tarantino to direct an episode of csi and added that he was a fan of the forensic drama. she said he finally agreed a few weeks ago while csi was doing some location shooting in las vegas and the show s stars persuaded him. he knows everything there is to know about csi and he is into the whole mythology of csi mendelsohn said. quentin came in a couple of weeks ago. we had a story meeting with the writers. he had a great idea and it was so much fun to have him in the room... we are positively giddy. filming is due to start in early april and the tarantino-directed episode will be broadcast in the us on 19 may.
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eu software patent law faces axe the european parliament has thrown out a bill that would have allowed software to be patented. politicians unanimously rejected the bill and now it must go through another round of consultation if it is to have a chance of becoming law. during consultation the software patents bill could be substantially re-drafted or even scrapped. the bill was backed by some hi-tech firms saying they needed protections it offered to make research worthwhile. hugo lueders european director for public policy at comptia an umbrella organization for technology companies said only when intellectual property was adequately protected would european inventors prosper. he said the benefits of the bill had been obscured by special interest groups which muddied debate over the rights and wrongs of software patents. other proponents of the bill said it was a good compromise that avoided the excesses of the american system which allows the patenting of business practices as well as software. but opponents of the bill said that it could stifle innovation be abused by firms keen to protect existing monopolies and could hamper the growth of the open source movement. the proposed law had a troubled passage through the european parliament. its progress was delayed twice when polish meps rejected plans to adopt it. also earlier this month the influential european legal affairs committee (juri) said the law should be re-drafted after it failed to win the support of meps. to become law both the european parliament and a qualified majority of eu states have to approve of the draft wording of the bill. the latest rejection means that now the bill on computer inventions must go back to the eu for re-consideration.
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eastwood s baby scoops top oscars clint eastwood s million dollar baby beat martin scorsese s the aviator to the top awards at the oscars on sunday. the boxing drama was named best picture and eastwood pipped scorsese to best director while its stars hilary swank and morgan freeman won acting awards. the aviator took five prizes including best supporting actress for cate blanchett. the biopic of howard hughes led the nominations with 11. jamie foxx picked up best actor for playing soul star ray charles in ray. many expected this to be scorsese s year - but he was unsuccessful in the best director category for the fifth time in his career. he has never won despite being nominated for such films as raging bull and goodfellas. instead eastwood took his second oscar for best director after winning for unforgiven in 1993. it was a wonderful adventure eastwood said. to make a picture in 37 days it takes a well oiled machine. i am lucky to be here and lucky to be still working. i ve got a lot of stuff to do yet. hilary swank picked up her second best actress oscar for playing a female boxer in million dollar baby beating stars including annette bening kate winslet and imelda staunton. i don t know what i did in this life to deserve this she told the audience. i m just a girl from a trailer park who had a dream. morgan freeman beat actors including clive owen jamie foxx and alan alda to the prize for best supporting actor. he thanked eastwood and described the film as a labour of love . this was the fourth nomination of his career but his first win. backstage he said: a lot of people say you re due - maybe you are maybe you aren t - it s an accolade. million dollar baby s success was the night s biggest surprise after the aviator seemed to have the advantage until the end of the ceremony. cate blanchett who won for playing late screen legend katharine hepburn in the aviator said her award was an indescribable surprise and honour . of hepburn she said: the longevity of her career is inspiring to everyone. blanchett also paid tribute to the film s director martin scorsese telling him: i hope my son will marry your daughter. the aviator s other awards came for cinematography film editing art direction and costume design. and jamie foxx who had two nominations this year paid tribute to the beautiful legacy of soul legend ray charles who died last year and thanked director taylor hackford. you took a chance man he said. that love for ray charles was deep down in the earth somewhere and you opened it up. everybody s drowning in this love. thank you for taking a chance and thank you for waiting 15 years to get me to do it. he broke down in tears when speaking about being whipped by his grandmother whom he described as his first acting teacher when he was young. in other awards cartoon hit the incredibles won best animated feature and best sound editing. bittersweet comedy sideways won best adapted screenplay while the original screenplay prize went to eternal sunshine of the spotless mind. born into brothels about the children of prostitutes in calcutta was named best documentary the sea inside was named best foreign language film and finding neverland got the accolade for best musical score. spider-man 2 triumphed in the visual effects category ray won best sound mixing and lemony snicket s a series of unfortunate events picked up best make-up. former british tv presenter andrea arnold who hosted children s shows motormouth and number 73 in the 1980s won best short film for wasp. comedian chris rock who hosted the ceremony for the first time received a standing ovation before getting the show under way.
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ea to take on film and tv giants video game giant electronic arts (ea) says it wants to become the biggest entertainment firm in the world. the us firm says it wants to compete with companies such as disney and will only achieve this by making games appeal to mainstream audiences. ea publishes blockbuster titles such as fifa and john madden as well as video game versions of movies such as harry potter and the james bond films. its revenues were $3bn (£1.65bn) in 2004 which ea hoped to double by 2009. ea is the biggest games publisher in the world and in 2004 had 27 titles which sold in excess of one million copies each. nine of the 20 biggest-selling games in the uk last year were published by ea. gerhard florin ea s managing director for european publishing said: doubling our industry in five years is not rocket science. he said it would take many years before ea could challenge disney - which in 2004 reported revenues of $30bn (£16bn) - but it remained a goal for the company. we will be able to bring more people into gaming because games will be more emotional. mr florin predicted that the next round of games console would give developers enough power to create real emotion. it s the subtleties the eyes the mouth - 5 000 polygons doesn t really sell the emotion. with ps3 and xbox 2 we can go on the main character with 30 000 to 50 000 polygons he said. with that increased firepower the finding nemo video game looks just like the movie but it will be interactive. mr florin said that more than 50% of all ea s games were sold to adults and played by adults but the perception remained that the video game industry was for children. our goal is to bring games to the masses which bring out emotions. ea said the video game industry was now bigger than the music industry. nobody queues for music anymore. you can t ignore an industry when people queue to buy a game at midnight because they are so desperate to play it he said referring to demand for titles for such as grand theft auto: san andreas and halo 2. jan bolz ea s vice president of sales and marketing in europe said the firm was working to give video games a more central role in popular culture. he said the company was in advanced stages of discussions over a reality tv show in which viewers could control the actions of the characters as in its popular game the sims. one idea could be that you re controlling a family telling them when to go to the kitchen and when to go to the bedroom and with this mechanism you have gamers all over the world playing the show said mr bolz. he also said ea was planning an international awards show similar to the oscars and the grammys which would combine video games music and movies. mr bolz said video games firm had to work more closely with celebrities. people will want to play video games if their heroes like robbie williams or christina aguilera are in them. mr florin said the challenge was to keep people playing in their 30s 40s and 50s. there s an indication that a 30 year old comes home from work and still wants to play games. if that s true that s a big challenge for tv broadcasters - because watching tv is the biggest pastime at present.
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davenport puts retirement on hold lindsay davenport has put any talk of retirement on hold after having a largely injury-free 2004 campaign. the 28-year-old world number one had said that she would quit at the end of last year but after a successful season she has had a change of heart. finally i felt i put myself in a position to try and win grand slams again said davenport. it would be tough to walk away when i feel like i can contend so there s no point in hanging it up quite yet. davenport has won three grand slams the 2000 australian open wimbledon in 1999 and the 1998 us open. her career has been hit by a series of injuries but last year she started hitting top form and won seven titles. she was due to take part in this week s hopman cup in perth but decided she wanted to rest her knee. i just really wanted to make sure my right knee was going to be able to really withstand all the rigours of the whole year coming up she said.
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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] .
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watchdog probes e-mail deletions the information commissioner says he is urgently asking for details of cabinet office orders telling staff to delete e-mails more than three months old. richard thomas totally condemned the deletion of e-mails to prevent their disclosure under freedom of information laws coming into force on 1 january. government guidance said e-mails should only be deleted if they served no current purpose mr thomas said. the tories and the lib dems have questioned the timing of the new rules. tory leader michael howard has written to tony blair demanding an explanation of the new rules on e-mail retention. on monday lib dem constitutional affairs committee chairman alan beith warned that the deletion of millions of government e-mails could harm the ability of key probes like the hutton inquiry. the timing of the new rules just before the freedom of information act comes into forces was too unlikely to have been a coincidence mr beith said. but a cabinet office spokeswoman said the move was not about the new laws or the destruction of important records . mr beith urged the information commissioner to look at how the e-mail regime could support the freedom of information regime . mr thomas said: the new act of parliament makes it very clear that to destroy records in order to prevent their disclosure becomes a criminal offence. he said there was already clear guidance on the retention of e-mails contained in a code of practice from the lord chancellor. all e-mails are subject to the freedom of information laws but the important thing was the content of the e-mail said mr thomas. if in doubt retain that has been the long-standing principle of the civil service and public authorities. it s only when you ve got no further use for the particular record that it may be legitimate to destroy it. but any deliberate destruction to avoid the possibility of later disclosure is to be totally condemned. the freedom of information act will cover england wales and northern ireland from next year. similar measures are being brought in at the same time in scotland. it provides the public with a right of access to information held by about 100 000 public bodies subject to various exemptions. its implementation will be monitored by the information commissioner.
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politics
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pakistani women must not hide hiding women away in the home hidden behind veils is a backward view of islam president musharraf of pakistan has said during a visit to britain. he was speaking to the bbc s newsnight programme a few hours before visiting the pakistani community in manchester. my wife is travelling around. she is very religious but she is very moderate said general musharraf. it comes after pakistan s high commissioner to britain said some pakistanis should integrate more. dr maleeha lodhi said people could not expect others to listen to their grievances if they isolated themselves. gen musharraf told the bbc: some people think that the women should be confined to their houses and put veils on and all that and they should not move out - absolutely wrong. the pakistani president was also asked whether he thought the war on terror had made the world less safe. yes absolutely. and i would add that unfortunately we are not addressing the core problems so therefore we can never address it in its totality he said. we are fighting it in its immediate context but we are not fighting it in its strategic long-term context. it is the political disputes and we need to resolve them and also the issue of illiteracy and poverty. this combined are breeding grounds of extremism and terrorism. on monday the pakistani president met prime minister tony blair at 10 downing street on his first official visit to london. he is due to visit the pakistani community in manchester on tuesday afternoon. the mirror newspaper said on tuesday it had been handed a sensitive dossier outling the details of gen musharraf s visit to britain. the paper said the document had been found in a london street by a member of the public. it said the dossier contained details about his movements and also confidential police radio channels call signs and codes. speaking in london on monday gen musharraf said al-qaeda was on the run in pakistan. but standing next to mr blair he added that it was crucial to tackle the core of what creates terrorists what creates an extremist militant environment which then leads on to terrorism . that is the resolution of political disputes. mr blair said the two leaders had talked about afghanistan the wider war on terror the situation in the middle east and the ongoing dispute over kashmir. we agreed that in afghanistan there is some cause for optimism about the progress that has been made there said mr blair. in respect of iraq we agreed that whatever the issues of the past the important thing now is to see the strategy through and ensure that iraq is capable of becoming a stable and democratic state.
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politics
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bargain calls widen softbank loss japanese communications firm softbank has widened losses after heavy spending on a new cut-rate phone service. the service launched in december and dubbed otoku or bargain has had almost 900 000 orders softbank said. the firm a market leader in high-speed internet had an operating loss for the three months to december of 7.5bn yen ($71.5m; £38.4m). but without the otoku marketing spend it would have made a profit - and expects to move into the black in 2006. the firm did not give a figure for the extent of profits it expected to make next year. it was born in the 1990s tech boom investing widely and becoming a fast-rising star till the end of the tech bubble hit it hard. its recent return to a high profile came with the purchase of japan telecom the country s third-biggest fixed-line telecoms firm. the acquisition spurred its broadband internet division to pole position in the japanese market with more than 5.1 million subscribers at the end of december.
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business
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lacroix label bought by us firm luxury goods group lvmh has sold its loss-making christian lacroix clothing label to a us investment group. the paris-based firm has been shedding non-core businesses and focusing on its most profitable brands including moet & chandon champagne and louis vuitton. lvmh said the french designer s haute couture and ready-to-wear labels had been purchased by the falic group for an unspecified sum. the falic group bought two cosmetics labels from lvmh in 2003. the sale of the lacroix label comes as many fashion houses are struggling to make money from their expensive haute couture ranges. the florida-based falic group which also runs a chain of 90 duty free stores in the us said it planned to expand the brand by opening new stores. mr lacroix said he planned to stay at the label he founded in 1987 although exact details are still to be confirmed.
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business
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text message record smashed uk mobile owners continue to break records with their text messaging with latest figures showing that 26 billion texts were sent in total in 2004. the figures collected by the mobile data association (mda) showed that 2.4 billion were fired off in december alone the highest monthly total ever. that was 26% more than in december 2003. the records even surpassed the mda s own predictions it said. every day 78 million messages are sent and there are no signs of a slow down. before december s bumper text record the previous highest monthly total was in october 2004 when 2.3 billion were sent. text messaging is set to smash more records in 2005 too said the mda with forecasts suggesting a total of 30 billion for the year. even though mobiles are becoming increasingly sophisticated with much more multimedia applications texting is still one of the most useful functions of mobiles. people are using sms to do much more too. booking cinema tickets text voting and news or sports text alerts are growing popular. mobile owners have also given the chance to donate to the disasters emergency committee s (dec) asian tsunami fund by texting donate to a simple short code number. looking further ahead in the year the mda s chairman mike short has predicted that more people will go online through their mobiles estimating 15 billion wap page impressions. handsets with gprs capability - an always on net connection - will rise to 75% while 3g mobile ownership growing to five million by the end of 2005. these third generation mobiles offer a high-speed connection which means more data like video can be received on the phone. globally mobile phone sales passed 167 million in the third quarter of 2004 according to a recent report from analysts gartner. that was 26% more than the previous year. it is predicted that there would be two billion handsets in use worldwide by the end of 2005.
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tech
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london irish 19-33 wasps wasps made light of the absence of several internationals to sink london irish with a trio of second-half tries. rob hoadley returned to haunt his old club at the madejski stadium scoring the opening try in the 43rd minute. tom voyce powered through the irish defence for wasps second try before richard birkett went over unchallenged. mark van gisbergen added 18 points. irish replied with three penalties and a mark mapletoft drop goal before scott staniforth ran in a consolation try. barry everitt who replaced mapletoft late in the game added the conversion to become the fourth premiership player to reach 1 000 points. he joins jonny wilkinson tim stimpson and paul grayson in achieving that target. wasps piled on the pressure in an attempt to grab a fourth try which would have secured them a bonus point but they were denied by some desperate defending from irish. director of rugby warren gatland revealed that harsh words at half-time inspired his wasps side to raise their game after the restart. they got a roasting and it was a good second-half performance when they came out and played to instructions he said. gatland also singled out stand-in flankers tom rees and john hart for special praise. they did very well. the back row played some fantastic rugby he added. london irish coach gary gold felt the result exposed his side s lack of consistency. irish trailed by just two points at the break and gold said: for 55 minutes we lived with the best but we have got to get back for the full 80 minutes. gold will now turn his attention to next week s powergen cup semi-final at struggling leeds. we ve got a good chance but with leeds facing possible relegation they re going to come out firing he added. horak staniforth penney nordt bishop; mapletoft edwards; hatley van der walt hardwick; kennedy casey; gustard dawson murphy. replacements: everitt for mapletoft (53) hodgson for edwards (77) wheatley for hatley (71) paice for van der walt (60) strudwick for kennedy (60) danaher for gustard (66) reid for murphy (47) van gisbergen; voyce erinle hoadley roberts; king richards; payne greening dowd; shaw purdy; hart rees dallaglio. replacements: priscott for roberts (71) green for dowd (71) skivington for shaw (71) birkett for hart (57) gotting for rees (39). not used: fury brooks
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o leary agrees new villa contract aston villa boss david o leary signed a three-and-a-half year contract extension on thursday securing his future at the club until summer 2008. o leary s future was in question but villa chairman doug ellis said he was happy to secure the deal. david s record since his arrival in 2003 is excellent and he shares the board s amibitions in taking this club forward he told villa s website. for this reason it was important we got this right. o leary put pen to paper after deals were sorted for his right-hand men roy aitken and steve mcgregor. it was important to me roy and steve an integral part of my team should stay for the same time o leary said on thursday ahead of signing his new deal. someone has to try and put aston villa back where they should belong and i m up for the challenge. earlier in december there were rumours o leary would quit if he is not offered a new deal before the end of the season. but he denied that saying he was happy to take on the challenge of improving villa s fortunes in the long term. i want to make sure by the end of the five years i would have been in charge that villa are achieving top six finishes in the premiership on a regular basis said o leary who took over at villa park in may 2003. but to achieve that and take the next step forward we do need to bring in quality players. i would like a couple next month if at all possible to set us on the way. meanwhile o leary has rapped skipper olof mellberg for his comments before sunday s derby with birmingham. mellberg spoke of his dislike of villa s rivals ahead of the match which steve bruce s side won 2-1. i ve had more than a quiet word with olof. it s been said within the whole group not as a one-to-one he told villa s website. you shouldn t leave yourself open to be shot down. you shouldn t give people the chance to take cheap shots at you and he set himself up for that.
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wife swap makers sue us copycat the british producers of us wife swap are taking legal action against a show they claim is a blatant and wholescale copycat of their programme. rdf media which makes the show for us network abc has filed a damages claim for $18 million (£9.25 million) against fox s trading spouses. abc bought the rights to the british show which was first aired in 2003 and became a hit on channel 4. the us network is not part of the claim but has supported rdf s action. we respect our producing partners right to protect their intellectual property in whatever manner they deem most appropriate said abc in a statement. a spokesman for fox said it had not seen the details of the legal action and could not comment. their show was first screened in june and was criticised in the press for its similarities to wife swap. abc originally planned to call their programme trading moms but changed it to avoid confusion with the fox version. earlier this year the nbc network claimed that fox s boxing show the next great champ had been hurriedly produced to ensure its programme was the first to be screened. nbc alleged that boxing regulations had been violated but failed in their attempt to have the show pulled. the fox show proved a ratings flop while nbc s the contender is due to begin in february.
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entertainment
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bank set to leave rates on hold uk interest rates are set to remain on hold at 4.75% following the latest meeting of the bank of england. the bank s rate-setting committee has put up rates five times in the past year but rates have been on hold since september amid signs of a slowdown. economic growth slowed in the previous quarter as manufacturing output fell while consumer confidence has slipped. there is also growing evidence that the previously booming uk housing market is now cooling. house prices fell 0.4% in october according to the nationwide their biggest monthly fall since february 2001. last month bank of england governor mervyn king said that the economy had hit a softer patch after rapid economic growth in the first half of 2004. richard jeffrey chief economist at bridgewell securities said it was very unlikely that the bank of england would put rates up again this time around. there have been sufficient signs in the economy of a slowdown to stay the bank of england s hand he told bbc radio 4 s today programme. however mr jeffrey said he believed the slowdown in economic activity was temporary and it was dangerous to assume that rates had peaked. i still think interest rates are going up he said. we are not out of the woods.
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business
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russian film wins bbc world prize russian drama the return (vozvrashchenie) has been named winner of the bbc four world cinema award. the film tells the story of two adolescent boys who are subjected to a harsh regime when their strict father returns after a 10-year absence. directed by andrey zvyagintsev the return previously won the 2003 golden lion award at the venice film festival. the prize was presented at an awards ceremony held in london on thursday and hosted by jonathan ross. the winner was chosen by a panel which included x files actress gillian anderson critic roger clarke and touching the void director kevin mcdonald. ross who is the presenter of bbc one s film 2005 was also involved in the deliberations. a shortlist of six films from around the world had been drawn up from which the panel chose. other nominees included the motorcycle diaries zatoichi and hero. a viewer poll saw director zhang yimou s martial arts epic hero emerge as the favourite with 32% of votes cast. tragedy struck the production of the return when one of the young stars 15-year-old vladimir girin drowned in a lake. the winner of the world cinema award last year was the french animated feature belleville rendezvous
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hollywood campaign hits websites movie studio efforts to stop pirated films being shared on peer-to-peer networks have claimed a high-profile victim. the campaign of legal action is thought to be behind the closure of the widely used suprnova.org website. the site was the most popular place for people swapping and sharing links for the bittorrent network. a recent study showed that more than half of the peer-to-peer traffic during june was for the bittorrent system. in a message posted on suprnova.org on sunday the site s controllers said the site was closing down for good in the way that we all know it . if the site did return the message said it would not be hosting any more torrent links. it continued: we are very sorry for this but there was no other way we have tried everything. the only parts that would keep going said the operators of the suprnova site were the discussion forums and net chat channels. the site is thought to have closed following an announcement by the motion picture association of america that it was launching legal action against those operating bittorrent servers rather than end users. because of the way that bittorrent works server sites do not host the actual file being shared instead they host a link that points people to others that have it. by targeting servers the mpaa hopes to cripple bittorrent s ability to share files. in the opening days of the mpaa campaign the organisation filed 100 lawsuits against operators of bittorrent server site. the launching of the legal seems to be having an effect. phoenix torrents another popular bittorrent site has also decided to shut down and though it gave no reasons for the closure it is thought to be motivated by the threat of legal action. last week finnish police raided a bittorrent site based in the country that according to reports let 10 000 users shared pirated films software music and games.
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tech
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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.
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politics
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yahoo celebrates a decade online yahoo one of the net s most iconic companies is celebrating its 10th anniversary this week. the web portal has undergone remarkable change since it was set up by stanford university students david filo and jerry yang in a campus trailer. the students wanted a way of keeping track of their web-based interests. the categories lists they devised soon became popular to hundreds of people and the two saw business potential in their idea. originally dubbed jerry s guide to the world wide web the firm adopted the moniker yahoo because the founders liked the dictionary definition of a yahoo as a rude unsophisticated uncouth person. the term was popularised by the 18th century satirist jonathan swift in his classic novel gulliver s travels. we were certainly not sophisticated or civilised mr yang told reporters ahead of the anniversary which will be officially recognised on 2 march. they did have business brains however and in april 1995 persuaded venture capitalists sequoia capital which also invested in apple computer and cisco systems to fund yahoo to the tune of $2m (£1.04m). a second round of funding followed in the autumn and the company floated in april 1996 with less than 50 employees. now the firm employs 7 600 workers and insists its dot com culture of work hard play hard still remains. it is one of just a handful of survivors of the dot-com crash although it now faces intense rivalry from firms such as google msn and aol. jerry yang who remains the firm s chief yahoo is proud of what the company has achieved. in just one decade the internet has changed the way consumers do just about everything - and it s been a remarkable and wonderful experience he said. through it all we wanted to build products that satisfied our users wants and needs but it s even more than that - it s to help every one of us to discover get more done share and interact.
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tech
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wright-phillips to start on right england coach sven-goran eriksson has revealed shaun wright-phillips will start against the netherlands. but wright-phillips will not make his first start for england playing on the left as had been widely expected. shaun wright-phillips will probably start the game said eriksson. but i m not going to start wright-phillips on the left. eriksson also revealed that wes brown will start alongside jamie carragher in the injury-hit centre of defence. when asked if brown and carragher would start eriksson replied: i could tell you yes. it s a blow that four or five central defenders are away because of injuries. on the other hand it s good for carragher and brown to show what they can do at this level. that s positive. the england coach said that he had been impressed by wright-phillips form for manchester city. he deserves his chance. he has been playing well all season and i look forward to seeing him. and he added that andy johnson and stewart downing - the other two new players in the squad - would also get a chance to impress. wright-phillips downing and johnson will start or get the chance to play some part. johnson was not in my plans a year ago but he is doing a great season and scoring a lot of goals. downing is another one making a great season. he is young talented and there are not too many left-footed players in the squad.
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sport
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file-swappers ready new network legal attacks on websites that help people swap pirated films have forced the development of a system that could be harder to shut down. one site behind the success of the bittorrent file-swapping system is producing its own software that avoids the pitfalls of the earlier program. a test version of the new exeem program will be released in late january. but doubts remain about the new networks ability to ensure files being swapped are quality copies . in late december movie studios launched a legal campaign against websites that helped people swap pirated movies using the bittorrent network. the legal campaign worked because of the way that bittorrent is organised. that file-sharing system relies on links called trackers that point users to others happy to share the file they are looking for. shutting down sites that listed trackers crippled the bittorrent network. one of the sites shut down by the legal campaign was suprnova.org which helped boost the popularity of the bittorrent system by checking that trackers led to the movies or tv programmes they claimed to. now the man behind suprnova.org who goes by the nickname sloncek is preparing to release software for a new file-swapping network dubbed exeem. in an interview with novastream web radio sloncek said exeem would combine ideas from the bittorrent and kazaa file-sharing systems. like bittorrent exeem will have trackers that help point people toward the file they want. like kazaa these trackers will be held by everyone. there will be no centrally maintained list. this said sloncek should make the system less vulnerable to legal action aimed at stopping people swapping pirated movies and music. the exeem software has been under development for a few months and is currently being tested by a closed group of users. an early public version of the software should be available before february. sloncek said that currently only a windows version of the software was in development. there were no plans for a linux or mac version. he said that costs of writing the software will be paid for by adverts appearing in the finished version of the program. despite suprnova administrator sloncek s involvement with exeem the basic technology appears to have been developed by a firm called swarm systems that is based on caribbean island saint kitts and nevis. users of the exeem system will be able to rate files being swapped to help stop the spread of fake files sloncek told novastream. dr johan pouwelse a researcher at the delft university of technology who studies peer-to-peer networks said exeem was the next evolution in file-sharing systems. but he said it would struggle to be as popular as bittorrent and suprnova because early versions were not taking enough care to make sure good copies of files were being shared. exeem cannot prevent pollution he said. the rating system in exeem seems flawed because it is easy to insert both fake files and fake ratings he said. studies have shown that organisations working for record labels and movie studios have worked to undermine kazaa by putting in fakes. by contrast moderators on suprnova made sure files being shared were high quality. the moderators are the difference between having a system that works and one that s full of crap like kazaa he said. there is a fundamental tension between distribution and integrity he said. mr pouwelse said that future versions of file-sharing systems are likely to incorporate some kind of distributed reputation system that lets moderators prove who they are to the network and rate which files are worth downloading. when big files were being shared moderation systems were key said mr pouwelse. he added that the legal attacks on bittorrent had driven people away from sites such as suprnova but many users had simply migrated to other tracker listing sites many of which have seen huge increases in traffic. it s hard to compete with free he said. no-one from the motion picture association of america was immediately available for comment on the file-sharing development.
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tech
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diageo to buy us wine firm diageo the world s biggest spirits company has agreed to buy californian wine company chalone for $260m (£134m) in an all-cash deal. although diageo s best-known brands include smirnoff vodka and guinness stout it already has a us winemaking arm - diageo chateau & estate wines. diageo said it expects to get us regulatory approval for the deal during the first quarter of 2005. it said chalone would be integrated into its existing us wine business. the us wine market represents a growth opportunity for diageo with favourable demographic and consumption trends said diageo north america president ivan menezes. in july diageo which is listed on the london stock exchange reported an annual turnover of £8.89bn down from £9.28bn a year earlier. it blamed a weaker dollar for its lower turnover. in the year ending 31 december 2003 chalone reported revenues of $69.4m.
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business
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redford s vision of sundance despite sporting a corduroy cap pulled low over his face plus a pair of dark glasses robert redford cuts an unmistakable figure through the star-struck crowds at sundance. it s a rare downtown appearance for the man who started the annual festival in park city utah back in the 1980s. now in its twenty-first year sundance continues to grow. some 45 000 people are estimated to have descended on this small ski town with nothing but movies on the mind. it s an opportunity to meet and make deals. redford wanted sundance to be a platform for independent film-makers but the commercial success of many showcased films have led to criticism that the festival is becoming too mainstream. smaller festivals like slamdance and xdance which take place during the same week in park city are competing for sundance s limelight. but redford is not worried. the more the merrier he says. the point was to create opportunities for people who may not have them. once independent film had a place where the work could be seen suddenly the merchants came. with them the celebrities came then the paparazzi - and suddenly it began to take on a whole new tone explains redford. people started to say we had gone mainstream and hollywood but actually hollywood came to us because suddenly there was good business in independent film he adds. international film-makers have always been celebrated here but 2005 is the first year a dedicated world dramatic and documentary competition is being held. redford wants the festival to encompass viewpoints he believes the american media fails to reflect particularly how the us is perceived internationally. he has never hidden the fact that he is a democrat. but he reserves particular disdain for the current republican administration. it s the ability to maintain the importance of dissent in a democratic system which right now is under threat with the attitude of this administration he says. i think many voices are being shut down or accused of being unpatriotic if they want to express another point of view. that s very unhealthy and very dangerous. if we take that policy into the world there will be the same victims and the same consequences. sundance isn t just one big screening. there are discussion panels and q&a sessions with directors tackling controversial topics like america s culture wars and the iraq war. while redford wishes the festival to be a forum for dissent the profile of the audience is fairly monolithic. educated middle class and predominantly white americans comes sundance with views from the same end of the political spectrum - anti-war and socially liberal. but redford knows this and started the sundance tv channel in an effort to reach a wider audience. when you look at the films here what we are presenting is very much egalitarian. and it s about good films and good story-telling be it african america asian women gay lesbian. sooner or later we will do away with those stereotypical labels and people will say it s just a film by so-and so .
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entertainment
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china blocks google news site china has been accused of blocking access to google news by the media watchdog reporters without borders. the paris-based pressure group said the english-language news site had been unavailable for the past 10 days. it said the aim was to force people to use a chinese edition of the site which according to the watchdog does not include critical reports. google told the bbc news website it was aware of the problems and was investigating the causes. china is believed to extend greater censorship over the net than any other country in the world. a net police force monitors websites and e-mails and controls on gateways connecting the country to the global internet are designed to prevent access to critical information. popular chinese portals such as sina.com and sohu.com maintain a close eye on content and delete politically sensitive comments. and all 110 000 net cafes in the country have to use software to control access to websites considered harmful or subversive. china is censoring google news to force internet users to use the chinese version of the site which has been purged of the most critical news reports said the group in a statement. by agreeing to launch a news service that excludes publications disliked by the government google has let itself be used by beijing it said. for its part the search giant said it was looking into the issue. it appears that many users in china are having difficulty accessing google news sites in china and we are working to understand and resolve the issue said a google spokesperson. google news gathers information from some 4 500 news sources. headlines are selected for display entirely by a computer algorithm with no human editorial intervention. it offers 15 editions of the service including one tailored for china and one for hong kong. google launched a version in simplified chinese in september. the site does not filter news results to remove politically sensitive information. but google does not link to news sources which are inaccessible from within china as this would result in broken links.
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tech
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Subsets and Splits
Tech Articles from BBC News
The query retrieves a sample of 2,000 entries labeled as 'tech', which is a basic filtering of the dataset.