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broadband challenges 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.

gardener wins double in glasgow britain s jason gardener enjoyed a double 60m success in glasgow in his first competitive outing since he won 100m relay gold at the athens olympics. gardener cruised home ahead of scot nick smith to win the invitational race at the norwich union international. he then recovered from a poor start in the second race to beat swede daniel persson and italy s luca verdecchia. his times of 6.61 and 6.62 seconds were well short of american maurice greene s 60m world record of 6.39secs from 1998. it s a very hard record to break but i believe i ve trained very well said the world indoor champion who hopes to get closer to the mark this season. it was important to come out and make sure i got maximum points. my last race was the olympic final and there was a lot of expectation. this was just what i needed to sharpen up and get some race fitness. i m very excited about the next couple of months. double olympic champion marked her first appearance on home soil since winning 1500m and 800m gold in athens with a victory. there was a third success for britain when edged out russia s olga fedorova and sweden s jenny kallur to win the women s 60m race in 7.23secs. maduaka was unable to repeat the feat in the 200m finishing down in fourth as took the win for russia. and the 31-year-old also missed out on a podium place in the 4x200m relay as the british quartet came in fourth with russia setting a new world indoor record. there was a setback for jade johnson as she suffered a recurrence of her back injury in the long jump. russia won the meeting with a final total of 63 points with britain second on 48 and france one point behind in third. led the way for russia by producing a major shock in the high jump as he beat olympic champion stefan holm into second place to end the swede s 22-event unbeaten record. won the triple jump with a leap of 16.87m with britain s tosin oke fourth in 15.80m. won the men s pole vault competition with a clearance of 5.65m with britain s nick buckfield 51cm adrift of his personal best in third. and won the women s 800m with britain s jenny meadows third. there was yet another russian victory in the women s 400m as finished well clear of britain s catherine murphy. chris lambert had to settle for fourth after fading in the closing stages of the men s 200m race as sweden s held off leslie djhone of france. france s won the men s 400m with brett rund fourth for britain. took victory for sweden in the women s 60m hurdles ahead of russia s irina shevchenko and britain s sarah claxton who set a new personal best. italy grabbed their first victory in the men s 1500m as kicked over the last 200 metres to hold off britain s james thie and france s alexis abraham. a botched changeover in the 4x200m relay cost britain s men the chance to add further points as france claimed victory.

rap boss arrested over drug find rap mogul marion suge knight has been arrested for violating his parole after he was allegedly found with marijuana. he was arrested in barstow california on saturday following an alleged traffic offence. he is expected to be transferred to a state prison while a decision is made on whether he should be released. mr knight founder of death row records served a 10-month jail term in 2004 for punching a man while on parole for an assault conviction. police said mr knight was stopped on saturday after performing an illegal u-turn and a search of his car allegedly found marijuana. he is also accused of not having insurance. a 18-year-old woman in the car was arrested for providing false information and having a fake id card. she was later released. it was his second alleged violation having previously served half of a nine-year sentence for breaking the terms of his parole. mr knight 39 was jailed in october 1996 following his involvement in a fight with a rival gang just hours before rapper tupac shakur was killed in a las vegas drive-by shooting. he was driving shakur s car at the time and was shot in the head. at the time he was on probation for assaulting two musicians. mr knight a former bodyguard set up death row records in the early 1990s with shakur and dr dre among his protegees. but the label has always been dogged by allegations it supports gang culture and fuels the east and west coast rap rivalry.

amnesty chief laments war failure the lack of public outrage about the war on terror is a powerful indictment of the failure of human rights groups amnesty international s chief has said. in a lecture at the london school of economics irene khan said human rights had been flouted in the name of security since 11 september 2001. she said the human rights movement had to use simpler language both to prevent scepticism and spread a moral message. and it had to fight poverty not just focus on political rights for elites. ms khan highlighted detentions without trial including those at the us camp at guantanamo bay in cuba and the abuse of prisoners as evidence of increasing human rights problems. what s a new challenge is the way in which this age-old debate on security and human rights has been translated into the language of war she said. by using the language of war human rights are being sidelined because we know human rights do not apply in times of war. ms khan said such breaches were infectious and were now seen in almost very major country in the world. the human rights movement faces a crisis of faith in the value of human rights she said. that was accompanied by a crisis of governance where the united nations system did not seem able to hold countries to account. the amnesty secretary-general said a growing gap between the perceived influence of human rights group and what they could actually achieve was fuelling scepticism. public passivity on the war against terror is the single most powerful indictment on the failures of human rights groups she said. ms khan said the movement had failed to mobilise public outrage about what was happening to the human rights system. there needed to be a drive to use simpler language talking about the basic morality of the issues rather than the complexity of legal processes. such efforts could make the issues more relevant to people across the world she said. the human rights groups also had to recognise there were new groups which had to be tackled in new ways as power dripped away from state governments. al-qaeda for example was not going to be impressed by a traditional amnesty letter writing campaign. more also needed to be done to develop a human rights framework for international business corporations. amnesty international members voted in 2001 to extend the organisation s work from political and civil rights to cover social and economic rights too. ms khan said the human rights movement would make itself irrelevant if it turned away from the suffering caused by economic strife. we would be an elitist bunch working for the elites for those who cannot read the newspaper of their choice rather than those who cannot read she said. despite her concerns ms khan dubbed herself a hope-monger saying she was confident the passions of the human rights movement could overcome the new challenges.

player burn-out worries robinson england coach andy robinson says english rugby has to act now to prevent injury destroying players careers. he will be without a host of big names for the six nations as the intensity of professional rugby union hits players. injuries are part of the sport but we have to have a look at the amount of injuries that occur in the english season robinson told bbc sport. i think players are probably going to have three or four years taken off their careers. robinson will be missing an entire midfield for the six nations with the likes of jonny wilkinson mike tindall and will greenwood injured. rugby union has become far more physically demanding since the game went professional nearly 10 years ago. as a result three of the major stakeholders in english rugby have launched an injury audit to find out how players are coping. the audit is jointly funded by the professional rugby players association the rugby football union and premier rugby. as far as robinson is concerned its findings must not be ignored. i think there s an injury audit coming out in march that s got some great information in there that i think everybody in the english game has got to look at he said. if we don t the situation is going to get worse and not better so i think rugby as a whole has got to look at this.

hanks greeted at wintry premiere hollywood star tom hanks was in london s leicester square for the uk premiere of polar express. the west end landmark was turned into a festive landscape complete with snow and carol singers to celebrate the arrival of the animated film. this is leicester square like you ve never seen it before said hanks who plays five roles in the movie. polar express is based on a children s book which tells the story of a young boy s journey to meet santa claus. the 48-year-old actor crossed a three-metre high bridge built in the square which he said was almost impossible to get across . hundreds of fans greeted the star all wearing santa hats and mince pies were on offer. hanks said that the new film has an elegant message . christmas is a special time of the year and you get out of it what you put into it added the two-time academy award winner. i believe in the spirit of christmas and i think that s embodied in santa claus he said. polar express uses technology similar to that used in lord of the rings to bring gollum to life. the performance capture technique enables hanks to play a number of roles including the eight-year-old boy who is at the centre of the story and father christmas. it is directed by robert zemeckis who has previously worked with hanks on forrest gump and castaway.

hearts of oak 3-2 cotonsport hearts of oak set up an all ghanaian confederation cup final with a 3-2 win over cameroon s cotonsport garoua in accra on sunday. the win for hearts means they will play asante kotoko in the two-leg final after the kumasi team qualified from group a on saturday. in the other group b game cameroon s beat of south africa 3-2 in douala neither side could have qualified for the final. hearts of oak started the game needing a win to qualify for the final while cotonsport only needed to avoid defeat to go through. louis agyemang scored the first two goals for hearts either side of half time before ben don bortey scored the third. hearts looked set for a comfortable win but cotonsport staged a late fight back scoring twice late on. first of all boukar makaji scored in the 89th minute and then 3 minutes into injury time at the end of the game andre nzame iii was on target. but it was too little too late for the cameroonians and hearts held on to win the game and a place in the final. the first leg of the final will be played in accra on the weekend of 27-28 november and the second leg two weeks later on the 11 december in kumasi. in the other group b game cameroon s sable batie took the lead in the 35th minute through kemadjou before santos equalised on the hour mark thanks to thokozani xaba . bernard ngom put sable ahead just five minutes later and then ernest nfor settled the game on 68 minutes. ruben cloete scored the south african sides consolation with just three minutes left on the clock.

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 .

sir paul rocks super bowl crowds sir paul mccartney wowed fans with a live mini-concert at american football s super bowl - and avoided any janet jackson-style controversies. the 62-year-old sang hey jude and other beatles songs in a 12-minute set at half-time during the game in florida. last year jackson exposed a breast during a dance routine causing outrage among millions of tv viewers and landing the cbs tv network a fine. sir paul however did nothing more racy than remove his jacket as he sang. organisers were widely considered to be playing it safe this year by booking 62-year-old sir paul for his second super bowl show. three years ago he was invited to perform at the first super bowl after the september 11 attacks and performed his specially-written song freedom. this time he started off the show at the alltel stadium in jacksonville florida with the beatles numbers drive my car and get back. he then performed a mellow version of live and let die the james bond theme he recorded with the band wings. finally he closed the show with a rousing version of hey jude. the former beatle resisted any temptation to refer to janet jackson s headline-grabbing performance last year instead keeping banter between songs to a minimum in order to squeeze as much music as he could into his slot. the singer removed his black jacket halfway through the show - but any fans hoping for a second nipple-gate were to be disappointed as he kept his red sweatshirt on underneath. earlier the black eyed peas and alicia keys had provided the night s other high-profile entertainment by performing in a pre-game show. black eyed peas singer fergie was dressed in a tight orange top and purple hotpants but nothing in her performance was likely to upset tv watchdogs. after the controversy last year - which saw cbs fined a record $550 000 (£292 000) by federal regulators - super bowl organisers had turned to producer don mischer to oversee this year s half-time show. his previous production credits included olympic opening and closing ceremonies. the super bowl is watched by an audience of 144.4 million in the us with many of the people watching are said to tune in specifically to see the entertainment put on around the event. michael jackson aerosmith diana ross gloria estefan and phil collins are among the stars who have previously graced the super bowl stage.

mauresmo opens with victory in la amelie mauresmo and maria sharapova won their opening matches at the tour championships in los angeles. france s mauresmo routed vera zvonareva 6-1 6-0 while wimbledon champion sharapova was a 6-1 6-4 winner over fellow russian svetlana kuznetsova. american serena williams also won edging russian elena dementieva 7-6 7-5 for her second victory of the event. the event is split into two groups of four with the top two from each advancing to the semi-finals. mauresmo s win was her ninth in a row as she tries to overtake lindsay davenport for the number one spot. mauresmo spent five weeks at number one after the us open before injury ushered davenport back in front. since then i feel very confident on court and my game is there. i want to get the ranking back but it s very different than before i was number one. it was an obsession but now i take it in a relaxed way. mauresmo completed her first match in the season-ending championship in 54 minutes as russia s zvonareva struggled to return her serve and failed to achieve a single break point. she got mad a little bit and i played some great tennis said mauresmo who was runner-up to kim clijsters in last year s final. zvonareva has lost both her games so far having crashed 6-2 6-4 kuznetsova in the staples centre on wednesday. sometimes not everything works she said. it was lots of pressure. maybe that is why i couldn t do 100%. but i was fighting. sharapova who lost 6-2 6-2 to kuznetsova in beijing in september said: in beijing she was coming off such a big winning streak [14 matches] and she was unstoppable. this time it was important to start off well and put some pressure on her. the tournament debutant added: i love it here. the atmosphere is great. to be here where the lakers play you just feel that excitement. i love basketball. williams admitted she is still some way off her best form but remained positive after two wins in two days. it s hard to go out there and get it right but i m fighting and i m hoping said williams. what makes me happy is the effort. i had a really good effort today. i m trying to add new dimensions to my game.

india to deport bollywood actress india has ordered the deportation of iranian-born model and actress negar khan to norway after saying she was working illegally on her visa. khan has had raunchy roles in music videos and bollywood films over the past two years. the distressed actress told media she was being driven straight to the airport after a routine appointment at the bombay immigration office. immigration officials said she had been warned about her visa last year. khan told an indian news channel on her mobile phone: they are not even letting me go home to get my bags. i have no clothes or money on me. they did not give me any notice. i don t know why they are taking me away like this. there is nothing wrong with my visa. it says i work here... they are not allowing me to even call a lawyer. bipin bihari deputy police chief in bombay said khan was being sent back to norway from which she holds a passport on the first available flight. she was on a visitor s visa but she has engaged in several commercial ventures he said. we issued notices last year in view of which she had gone back to norway but she has returned again this year to work. one of khan s biggest successes was the steamy hindi song chadti jawani (rising youth). khan was involved in controversy when topless photos alleged to be of her appeared in a norwegian magazine.

fosters buys stake in winemaker australian brewer fosters has bought a large stake in australian winemaker southcorp sparking rumours of a possible takeover. fosters bought 18.8% of southcorp the global winemaker behind the penfolds lindemans and rosemount brands for 4.17 australian dollars per share. a bid at that price would value the company at a$3.1bn ($2.4bn; £1.25bn ). fosters said it was currently in discussions which may lead to a major corporate announcement . in a separate statement southcorp confirmed the brewer had asked for talks. both firms asked the sydney stock market to suspend trading in their shares until monday. southcorp s shares were suspended at a$4.25. fosters bought the 18.8% stake from reline investments the family investment firm for the oatleys who founded the rosemount estates label and sold it to southcorp in 2001. robert oatley and his son sandy oatley have both resigned from southcorp s board following the share deal. southcorp employs 2 700 people and is the largest single investor in rural australia according to its website. the prospect of fosters launching a major acquisition startled investors as the brewer said last summer that it was not looking to expand through a big buy in the near future. it has cash available after getting a$846m from selling property business lensworth but it has been widely expected to return cash to shareholders. people will scratching their heads over this one. fosters has done a back-flip said shawn burns a fund manger at deutsche asset management. southcorp s shares have risen in recent months on speculation that it could become a takeover target. it spent two years in the red returning to profit in 2004. consolidation in the wine industry is being driven by constellation the world s biggest winemaker. it seized the top spot when it bought australian firm brl hardy for just over $1bn in 2003. since then it has paid $1bn for us wine maker robert mondavi bought last month. fosters main wine business is beringer blass wine estate. its best known brand is fosters lager though it makes a clutch of beer brands and spirits. analysts were divided on thursday about whether fosters was more likely to go for a takeover or merely wanted to take a big enough chunk of southcorp to prevent it falling to a rival. currently i think the strategic position is more sensible rather than an outright takeover said one analyst quoted by the agence france presse news agency. however matt williams a fund manager at perpetual trustees said taking the stake is definitely a precursor to a takeover .

mutant book wins guardian prize a book about the evolution of mutants and the science of abnormality has won the guardian first book award 2004. armand marie leroi a lecturer at london s imperial college scooped the £10 000 prize for mutants: on the form varieties and errors of the human body. it is profoundly cultured and beautifully written in the very best tradition of popular science writing today said judge claire armistead. the award recognises and rewards new writing across fiction and non-fiction. a panel of literary experts including novelists hari kunzru and ali smith director sir richard eyre and comedian alexei sayle chose the winner from a five-strong shortlist. the shortlist included susanna clarke s jonathan strange and mr norrell a novel about the magic arts at the turn of the 19th century and the places in between rory stewart s account of his trek on foot across afghanistan. what we found so impressive about armand marie leroi s book was the scope of its reference its elegance and its inquisitiveness said ms armistead chair of the judges and the guardian literary editor. while the subject matter of mutants unsettled some involved in the judging process the overwhelming majority found it fascinating she added. her words were echoed by iris director sir richard eyre who called marie leroi s work extraordinarily thought provoking . the award for first time authors is open to books from genres including fiction poetry biography memoir history politics science and current affairs. previous winners include white teeth by zadie smith in 2000 which went on to become a bestseller.

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

aids and climate top davos agenda climate change and the fight against aids are leading the list of concerns for the first day of the world economic forum in the swiss resort of davos. some 2 000 business and political leaders from around the globe will listen to uk prime minister tony blair s opening speech on wednesday. mr blair will focus on africa s development plans and global warming. earlier in the day came an update on efforts to have 3 million people on anti-aids drugs by the end of 2005. the world health organisation (who) said 700 000 people in poor countries were on life-extending drugs - up from 440 000 six months earlier but amounting to only 12% of the 5.8 million who needed them. a $2bn funding gap still stood in the way of hitting the 2005 target the who said. the themes to be stressed by mr blair - whose attendance was announced at the last minute - are those he wants to dominate the uk s chairmanship of the g8 group of industrialised states. other issues to be discussed at the five-day conference range from china s economic power to iraq s future after this sunday s elections. aside from mr blair more than 20 other world leaders are expected to attend including french president jacques chirac - due to speak by video link after bad weather delayed his helicopter - and south african president thabo mbeki whose arrival has been delayed by ivory coast peace talks. the ukraine s new president viktor yushchenko will also be there - as will newly elected palestinian leader mahmoud abbas. showbiz figures will also put in an appearance from u2 frontman bono - a well-known campaigner on trade and development issues - to angelina jolie a goodwill campaigner for the un on refugees. unlike previous years protests against the wef are expected to be muted. anti-globalisation campaigners have called off a demonstration planned for the weekend. at the same time about 100 000 people are expected to converge on the brazilian resort of porto alegre for the world social forum - the so-called anti-davos for campaigners against globalisation for fair trade and many other causes. in contrast the davos forum is dominated by business issues - from outsourcing to corporate leadership - with bosses of more than a fifth of the world s 500 largest companies scheduled to attend. a survey published on the eve of the conference by pricewaterhousecoopers said four in ten business leaders were very confident that their companies would see sales rise in 2005. asian and american executives however were much more confident than their european counterparts. but the political discussions focusing on iran iraq and china are likely to dominate media attention.

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.

kennedy predicts bigger turnout voters pent up passion could confound predictions of a low turnout in the coming general election charles kennedy has said. the liberal democrat leader predicted concerns over iraq and other international and domestic issue would express themselves during the campaign. his comments come as an inquiry looks at how best to boost voter turnouts. ex-foreign secretary robin cook said people were not apathetic but fed up of pager politics and not being heard. he like mr kennedy pointed to the hundreds of thousands of people who demonstrated against plans for the iraq war. mr cook who is giving evidence to the power inquiry into voter turnout rates told bbc radio 4 s today programme it was not fair to blame the public who were more interested in politics than ever before . they are turned off by the way we do politics in britain. there s a message there for politicians. he urged politicians to avoid negative campaigning and to speak more from the heart . we should be not so afraid to say what we stand for. he also criticised the cult of personality politics: there s far too much interest in celebrities. politics are in danger of becoming another branch of the celebrity industry. the government has tried a number of things in an attempt to boost voter turnout which fell to 59% in the last general election in 2001. this has included bringing in directly elected mayors to head local authorities and trialling postal voting.

ocean s twelve raids box office ocean s twelve the crime caper sequel starring george clooney brad pitt and julia roberts has gone straight to number one in the us box office chart. it took $40.8m (£21m) in weekend ticket sales according to studio estimates. the sequel follows the master criminals as they try to pull off three major heists across europe. it knocked last week s number one national treasure into third place. wesley snipes blade: trinity was in second taking $16.1m (£8.4m). rounding out the top five was animated fable the polar express starring tom hanks and festive comedy christmas with the kranks. ocean s twelve box office triumph marks the fourth-biggest opening for a december release in the us after the three films in the lord of the rings trilogy. the sequel narrowly beat its 2001 predecessor ocean s eleven which took $38.1m (£19.8m) on its opening weekend and $184m (£95.8m) in total. a remake of the 1960s film starring frank sinatra and the rat pack ocean s eleven was directed by oscar-winning director steven soderbergh. soderbergh returns to direct the hit sequel which reunites clooney pitt and roberts with matt damon andy garcia and elliott gould. catherine zeta-jones joins the all-star cast. it s just a fun good holiday movie said dan fellman president of distribution at warner bros. however us critics were less complimentary about the $110m (£57.2m) project with the los angeles times labelling it a dispiriting vanity project . a milder review in the new york times dubbed the sequel unabashedly trivial .

carry on star patsy rowlands dies actress patsy rowlands known to millions for her roles in the carry on films has died at the age of 71. rowlands starred in nine of the popular carry on films alongside fellow regulars sid james kenneth williams and barbara windsor. she also carved out a successful television career appearing for many years in itv s well-loved comedy bless this house. rowlands died in hove on saturday morning her agent said. born in january 1934 rowlands won a scholarship to the guildhall school of speech and drama scholarship when she was just 15. after spending several years at the players theatre in london she made her film debut in 1963 in tom jones directed by tony richardson. she made her first carry on film in 1969 where she appeared in carry on again doctor. rowlands played the hard-done-by wife or the put-upon employee as a regular carry on star. she also appeared in carry on at your convenience carry on matron and carry on loving as well as others. in recent years she appeared in bbc mini-series the cazalets and played mrs potts in the london stage version of beauty and the beast. agent simon beresford said: she was just an absolutely favourite client she never complained about anything particularly when she was ill she was an old trouper. she was of the old school - she had skills from musical theatre and high drama that is why she worked with the great and the good of directors. she didn t mind always being recognised for the carry on films because she thoroughly enjoyed making them. she was a really lovely person and she will be much missed. her last appearance on stage was as mrs pearce in the award-winning production of my fair lady at the national theatre. previously married she leaves one son alan. her funeral will be a private family occasion with a memorial service at a later date.

uk broadband gets speed injection broadband s rapid rise continues apace as speeds gear up a notch. an eight megabit service has been launched by internet service provider uk online. it is 16 times faster than the average broadband package on the market and will pave the way for services such as video-on-demand and broadband tv. the service is possible due to a new regime which allows other operators to use bt s exchanges and will initially only be available in towns. it represents a big leap forward for broadband said chris stening uk online general manager. the service comes with a hefty £39.99 monthly price tag but will mean users can download mp3s in seconds and offers tv-quality video streaming. the service includes wifi as standard meaning users can connect multiple pcs laptops and game consoles from any room in the house. not everybody will be able to take advantage of the service as it will be restricted to metropolitan areas. the service will initially be available to users within 2km radius of 230 telephone exchanges in areas such as london birmingham glasgow and cambridge. that represents about 4.4 million households. the service is possible due to a decision to loosen bt s strangle-hold on telephone exchanges. the process known as local loop unbundling was put in motion by the now defunct telecoms watchdog oftel but has only proved popular in recent months due to falling costs. uk online is looking at the possibility of bundling services such as cheap net telephone calls video-on-demand and tv by 2005 if the service proves popular. the service is twice as fast as any other service on offer in the uk and 16 times faster than most broadband services said mr stening. it takes a big leap for broadband and we are very excited about it he said. countries such as south korea and france have found the advantage of upping the speeds of broadband. in south korea video-on-demand over the net is cheaper than renting a dvd and online gaming is huge. mr stening believes the service will appeal to people in multi-occupancy buildings as well as easing family arguments. a typical family with two adults and two children is currently sharing a 512 kilobit service. this will basically give them 2 megabits each he said.

lions blow to world cup winners british and irish lions coach clive woodward says he is unlikely to select any players not involved in next year s rbs six nations championship. world cup winners lawrence dallaglio neil back and martin johnson had all been thought to be in the frame for next summer s tour to new zealand. i don t think you can ever say never said woodward. but i would have to have a compulsive reason to pick any player who is not available to international rugby. dallaglio back and johnson have all retired from international rugby over the last 12 months but continue to star for their club sides. but woodward added: the key thing that i want to stress is that i intend to use the six nations and the players who are available to international rugby as the key benchmark. my job along with all the other senior representatives is to make sure that we pick the strongest possible team. if you are not playing international rugby then it s still a step up to test rugby. it s definitely a disadvantage. i think it s absolutely critical and with the history of the lions we have got to take players playing for the four countries. woodward also revealed that the race for the captaincy was still wide open. it is an open book he said. there are some outstanding candidates from all four countries. and following the all blacks impressive displays in europe in recent weeks including a 45-6 humiliation of france woodward believes the three-test series in new zealand will provide the ultimate rugby challenge. their performance in particular against france was simply awesome said the lions coach. certain things have been suggested about the potency of their front five but they re a very powerful unit. with his customary thoroughness woodward revealed he had taken soundings from australia coach eddie jones and jake white of south africa following their tour matches in britain and ireland. as a result woodward stressed his lions group might not be dominated by players from england and ireland and held out hope for the struggling scots. scotland s recent results have not been that impressive but there have been some excellent individual performances. eddie in particular told me how tough they had made it for australia and i will take on board their opinions. and scotland forward simon taylor looks certain to get the call provided he recovers from knee and tendon problems. i took lessons from 2001 in that they did make a mistake in taking lawrence dallaglio when he wasn t fit and went on the trip. every player has to be looked at on their own merits and simon taylor is an outstanding player and i have no doubts that if he gets back to full fitness he will be on the trip. i am told he should be back playing by march and he has plenty of time to prove his fitness for the lions - and there are other players like richard hill in the same boat.

protect whistleblowers tuc says the government should change the law to give more protection to employees who raise health and safety concerns about their workplaces the tuc has said. it said data from employment tribunals suggested 1 500 safety whistleblowers had lost their jobs since 1999. some firms found it cheaper to sack a worker than to improve buildings or change working conditions it said. the health and safety executive said it was trying to get workers more involved in helping to make workplaces safer. the tuc figures were drawn from unfair dismissal cases at tribunals were health and safety were the main issue. safety representatives were often ignored when raising concerns because there was no legal duty to respond claimed the union organisation. general secretary brendan barber said: it shouldn t be a firing offence to object to unsafe work. workers should not be placed in the situation where they are forced to choose between risking their job or risking their personal health and safety. mr barber who said the problem is far worse than official statistics show called for a legal system that protects safety whistleblowers . he added that workers who are not in a union as well as casual and migrant workers stand little chance of redress. rory o neill editor of union-backed hazards magazine which conducted the research said: giving union safety reps more rights in more workplaces is the ultimate win-win. death and injuries at work increased last year for the second time since the turn of the century. it would be a fatal mistake not to take full advantage of the union safety effect. the tuc has called on the government to appoint roving safety reps and to increase spending on health and safety work inspections. the health and safety executive had said that it had launched an initiative to make factories and offices safer with more worker involvement.

speech takes on search engines a scottish firm is looking to attract web surfers with a search engine that reads out results. called speegle it has the look and feel of a normal search engine with the added feature of being able to read out the results. scottish speech technology firm cec systems launched the site in november. but experts have questioned whether talking search engines are of any real benefit to people with visual impairments. the edinburgh-based firm cec has married speech technology with ever-popular internet search. the ability to search is becoming increasingly crucial to surfers baffled by the huge amount of information available on the web. according to search engine ask jeeves around 80% of surfers visit search engines as their first port of call on the net. people visiting speegle can select one of three voices to read the results of a query or summarise news stories from sources such as the bbc and reuters. it is still a bit robotic and can make a few mistakes but we are never going to have completely natural sounding voices and it is not bad said speegle founder gordon renton. the system is ideal for people with blurred vision or for those that just want to search for something in the background while they do something else. we are not saying that it will be suitable for totally blind people although the royal national institute of the blind (rnib) is looking at the technology he added. but julie howell digital policy manager at the rnib expressed doubts over whether speegle and similar sites added anything to blind people s experience of the web. there are a whole lot of options like this springing up on the web and one has to think carefully about what the market is going to be she said. blind people have specialised screen readers available to them which will do the job these technologies do in a more sophisticated way she added. the site uses a technology dubbed panavox which takes web text and converts it into synthesised speech. in the past speech technology has only been compatible with broadband because of the huge files it downloads but cec says its compression technology means it will also work on slower dial-up connections. visitors to speegle may notice that the look and feel of the site bears more than a passing resemblance to the better known if silent search engine google. google has no connection with speegle and the use of bright colours is simply to make the site more visible for those with visual impairments said mr renton. it is not a rip-off. we are doing something that google does not do and is not planning to do and there is truth in the saying that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery he said. speegle is proving popular with those learning english in countries such as japan and china. the site is bombarded by people just listening to the words. the repetition could be useful although they may all end up talking like robots said mr renton.

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

bbc to pour £9m into new comedy the bbc is to invest £9m in developing new comedy and entertainment programmes outside london. the changes come as part of a shake-up of several departments to create shows that appeal to a wider range of people. changes are also being made to teams in the factual and daytime departments outside london. director of television jana bennett said the changes were about getting the best ideas on screen as efficiently and effectively as we can . the new structure in each genre is designed to ensure that happens she said. a number of new roles are being created in each department including a head of comedy commissioning based in glasgow. the new person will be in charge of the £9m budget and their role will be to develop shows outside the capital both within the bbc and with independent production companies. jane lush controller of entertainment commissioning said entertainment and comedy are incredibly important to our audiences; i m confident these changes will help us get the very best programmes on screen. similar positions will also be created in the other departments with the new commissioning editor for documentaries based in bristol and the daytime commissioning editor in birmingham. ms bennett said the new roles would benefit those making programmes within the bbc as well as those making shows for the channel independently. a strong independent sector and a flourishing in-house production base are not mutually exclusive and will stimulate the competition that will deliver the best ideas to the audience she said.

unilever shake up as profit slips anglo-dutch consumer goods giant unilever is to merge its two management boards after reporting unsatisfactory earnings for 2004. it blamed the poor results on sluggish decision making a rise in discounted retailers and a wet european summer. the company also cited difficult trading conditions and a lack of demand for goods such as its slimfast range. unilever which owns brands including dove soap said annual pre-tax profit fell 36% to 2.9bn euros (£1.99bn). shares fell 1% to 510.75 pence in london and dropped by 1.2% to 50.50 euros in amsterdam. under the restructuring plans patrick cescau the uk-based co-chairman will become group chief executive. dutch co-chairman antony burgmans will take on the role of non-executive chairman. we have recognised the need for greater clarity of leadership and we are moving to a simpler leadership structure that will provide a sharper operational focus mr burgmans said. we are leaving behind one of the key features of unilever s governance but this is a natural development following the changes introduced last year. the company which has had dual headquarters in rotterdam and london since 1930 will announce the location of its head office at a later date. unilever is not alone in trying to simplify its business. oil giant shell last year dismantled its dual-ownership structure after a series of problems relating to the size of its oil reserves that hammered its share price and led to the resignation of key board members. the best part of the news this morning was that the company announced a structure simplification said arjan sweere an analyst at petercam. the company said the organizational changes would speed decision making and it also may make further changes. the company said its main focus will be on improving profits and it is planning to accelerate and increase investment in its 400 main brands. while it is certainly the case that markets have been tougher in the past eighteen months than we had expected we have also lost some market share said mr cescau. we let a range of targets limit our ability flexibility and did not adjust our plans quickly enough to a more difficult business environment. our objective is to reverse the share loss that we experienced in some markets in 2004 and return to growth. unilever said european sales fell 2.8% last year dragged down by below part sales at its beverage division where revenues dipped by almost 4%. sales of ice cream and frozen food dipped by 3.4% in the us last year revenue grew by 1.5% despite disappointing sales in slimfast the company said. in asia leading products came under attack from rivals such as procter & gamble. unilever took a 1.5bn euro one-time charge in the fourth quarter including a 650m euro write-down on slimfast diet foods. sales of slimfast products have been hit in recent years by the popularity of the atkins diet. but looking ahead unilever said it was optimistic about prospects for its slimming products saying that demand is on the wane for rival low-carbohydrate diets. the company also said it planned to spend 500m euros this year buying back shares.

gerrard plays down european hopes steven gerrard has admitted that liverpool have little chance of winning the champions league this season. the 24-year-old reds skipper spoke out ahead of tuesday s first leg at home to bayer leverkusen in the last 16 which he will miss through suspension. let s be realistic there are some fantastic teams left in the champions league he told bbc radio five live. we are just going to try to stay in as long as possible but we realise that maybe it is not our year this year. gerrard has made no secret of his desire to be involved in europe s premier club competition. last season he described qualification for the champions league as the be all and end all - and rumours persist that he will leave anfield if the reds fail to secure a place in the competition. he has consistently been linked with a move away from liverpool with chelsea the favourites to snap up the england midfielder. and blues boss jose mourinho backed gerrard s view that rafael benitez s team could struggle to progress this season. rafa has still time in front of him to build an even better team maybe he s a little bit behind (right now) he told bbc radio five live. gerrard who fired liverpool into the last 16 of this season s competition with a brilliant goal in december s win over olympiakos insisted he was still fully focused on helping liverpool to glory this season. the reds are currently fifth in the premiership table five points off the crucial fourth spot which brings champions league qualification - and they face chelsea in sunday s carling cup final. it s big couple of months for liverpool he added. we re fighting for the fourth spot for the champions league for next season but we are still involved in two cup competitions which are very important. we are confident we can upset chelsea in the carling cup final and get to the last eight of the champions league because financially it is big for the club and personally for myself it is very good.

games firms face tough future uk video game firms face a testing time as they prepare for the next round of games consoles the industry warns. fred hasson head of tiga which represents independent developers said that more uk firms would go under due to greater risks in making new titles. three leading uk video game companies also predicted that more firms would close as they struggled to adapt. microsoft sony and nintendo are expected to release new consoles in the next 18 months. microsoft has said repeatedly that it wants to be first to the market and some analysts predict that xbox 2 will be released in the us before the end of 2005. the new machines will all have much greater processing and graphical power which will have a huge impact on development of next generation games. mr hasson said: in the last four years we have probably lost a third of independent developers. he said there were about 150 independent developers left in the industry and more were likely to close. once the cull has finished its likely to present those still standing with great opportunities he said. mr hasson said the industry was predicting that developments costs and teams were likely to need to double in order to cope with the demands of the new machines. that figure was endorsed by three independent companies contacted by the bbc news website - codemasters climax and rebellion. as consoles get more powerful the content gets more detailed and that means more cost said gary dunn development director at codemasters which develops games in house and also publishes titles. jason kingsley chief executive of rebellion said the transition from the current generation of consoles to the new machines was difficult because the production quality expected by consumers will be that much bigger . he added: we have been through five technology transitions and survived so far. each one has involved the death of some people. all companies said they were investing in new tools - called middleware - in order to try and avoid staff numbers spiralling out of control. simon gardner president of climax s action studio said: we are investing in superior tools and editors. we are investing upfront to generate this content without the need for huge teams. it s vital we avoid huge teams. he said climax was already directing about 20% of its resources to preparation for next generation titles. mr dunn warned that companies could face a short supply of programming development and artistic talent. if companies are hiring bigger and bigger teams at some point the talent is going to run out. mr hasson said games developers were beginning to realise that they had to be more business-like . there are still some developers who were involved in games from the bedroom coding days. some of them are still making games for peer group approval - that has to stop.

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.

cactus diet deal for phytopharm a slimming aid made from a southern african cactus is set to be developed by uk firm phytopharm and unilever. anglo-dutch food giant unilever will help the pharmaceutical firm develop the snacks containing hoodia extract. phytopharm shares jumped 10.7% on the news with analysts saying sales of $600m (£309m) a year were possible. the plant licensed to phytopharm in 1997 has been used for thousands of years by the sans bushmen of the kalahari desert to stave off hunger. studies have reportedly shown the plant curbs appetite instead of reducing calorific intake like many existing products. phytopharm will receive an initial fee of £6.5m from unilever - out of a potential total of £21m - as well as future royalties on product sales. under the deal production of the hoodia cactus at phytopharm s nursery in south africa will also rise from eight million plants to potentially hundreds of millions said phytopharm chief executive richard dixey. the firm had initially hoped to market a slimming drug from hoodia with pfizer. but the research collaboration came to an end in 2003. analysts said unilever could launch the new products in 2007. this deal goes a long way to restoring the market faith in phytopharm s pipeline after the pfizer exit said analyst erling refsum at nomura.

conservative backing for id cards the tories are to back controversial government plans to introduce id cards. the shadow cabinet revealed its support ahead of next week s commons vote on a bill to introduce compulsory id. the decision follows a tough meeting where some senior tories argued vociferously against the move party sources told the bbc. the bill which ministers claim will tackle crime terrorism and illegal immigration is expected to be opposed by the liberal democrats. they have said the scheme is deeply flawed and a waste of money. sources within the conservative party told the bbc michael howard has always been in favour of id cards and tried to introduce them when he was home secretary. the party has been agnostic on the issue until now but had now decided to come off the fence the tory source said. despite giving their backing to id cards the conservatives insisted they would hold ministers to account over the precise purpose of the scheme. they said they would also press labour over whether objectives could be met and whether the home office would deliver them. and they pledged to assess the cost effectiveness of id cards and whether people s privacy would be properly protected. it is important to remember that this bill will take a decade to come into full effect a spokesman said. it will do nothing to solve the immediate problems of rising crime and uncontrolled immigration. lib dem home affairs spokesman mark oaten said: this has all the signs of michael howard overruling colleagues concerns over id cards. the tories should have the courage to try and change public opinion not follow it. the new chairman of the bar council guy mansfield qc warned there was a real risk that people on the margins of society would be driven into the hands of extremists. what is going to happen to young asian men when there has been a bomb gone off somewhere they are going to be stopped. if they haven t [id cards] they are going to be detained.

buffy creator joins wonder woman the creator of buffy the vampire slayer is to take on a new female superhero after signing up to write and direct the wonder woman movie. joss whedon described the dc comics character as the most iconic female heroine of our time . in a way no one has met her yet he said. what i love most about icons is finding out what s behind them exploring the price of their power. linda carter played the character in the 1970s tv series. the character of wonder woman famed for her red and gold costume was born on paradise island and was blessed with the powers of strength and flight. the film is being produced by joel silver producer of the matrix trilogy. there s no one better than joss to adapt the legendary wonder woman comic book character created in the 1940s into a dynamic feature film for 21st century audiences said silver. wonder woman was the first great female superhero to emerge from comic books and later inspire millions of fans in her television incarnation... but this groundbreaking heroine has yet to be reinvented for the feature film arena. whedon created the character of buffy in the screenplay for the 1992 film. he distanced himself from the movie because of the direction it eventually took and the film bombed. but he did not give up on the slayer and went on to write and executive produce seven seasons of the cult tv series. he also produced the spin-off angel series. he is currently directing the film serenity based on his short-lived sci-fi series firefly.

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.

search wars hit desktop pcs another front in the on-going battle between microsoft and google is about to be opened. by the end of 2004 microsoft aims to launch search software to find any kind of file on a pc hard drive. the move is in answer to google s release of its own search tool that catalogues data on desktop pcs. the desktop search market is becoming increasingly crowded as google aol yahoo and many smaller firms tout programs that help people find files. microsoft made the announcement about its forthcoming search software during a call to financial analysts to talk about its first quarter results. john connors microsoft s chief financial officer said a test version of its desktop search software should be available for download by the end of the year. we re going to have a heck of a great race in search between google microsoft and yahoo he said. it s going to be really fun to follow. microsoft is coming late to the desktop search arena and its software will have to compare favourably with programs from a large number of rivals many of which have fiercely dedicated populations of users. the program could be based on the software microsoft owns as a result of its purchase of lookout software in early october. on 14 october google released desktop search software that catalogues all the files on a pc and lets users use one tool to find e-mail messages spreadsheets text files and presentations. the software will also find webpages and messages sent via aol instant messenger. many other firms have released desktop search systems recently too. companies such as blinkx copernic enfish x1 technologies and x-friend all do the same job of cataloguing the huge amounts of information that people increasingly store on their desktop or home computer. apple has also debuted a similar search system for its computers called spotlight that is due to debut with the release of the tiger operating system. due to follow are net giants aol and yahoo. the latter recently bought stata labs to get its hands on search software that people can use. microsoft is also reputedly working on a novel search system for the next version of windows (codenamed longhorn). however this is not likely to appear until 2006. the recent activity in the search industry shows that there is a need to move beyond simple keyword-based web search said kathy rittweger co-founder of blinkx. finding information of our own computers is becoming as difficult as it is to find the relevant webpage amongst the billions that exist. desktop search has become important for several reasons. according to research by message analysts the radicati group up to 45% of the information critical to keeping many businesses running sits in e-mail messages and attachments. jf sullivan spokesman for e-mail software firm sendmail said many organisations were starting to realise how important messaging was to their organisation and the way the work. the key thing is being able to manage all this information he said. also search is increasingly key to the way that people get around the internet. many people use a search engine as the first page they go to when getting on the net. many others use desktop toolbars that let them search for information no matter what other program they are using. having a tool on a desktop can be a lucrative way to control where people go online. for companies such as google which relies on revenue from adverts this knowledge about what people are looking for is worth huge amounts of money. but this invasiveness has already led some to ask about the privacy implications of such tools.

podcasters look to net money nasa is doing it 14-year-old boys in bedrooms are doing it couples are doing it gadget lovers - male and female - are definitely doing it. it is podcasting - diy radio in the form of downloadable mp3 audio files. they can done by anyone who has a microphone simple software the net and something to say. some liken them to talking audioblogs because many complement text-based weblogs - diary-like sites where people share their thoughts. they are essentially amateur radio shows on the net on demand and the movement is at very early stages. it s about real people saying real things and communicating says adam curry former mtv vj and the pied piper of podcasting. he was one of a community of people who created ipodder a small computer program known as an aggregator . it collects and automatically sends mp3 files to any digital music-playing device that can play wmp formats. those with digital music players can select which podcasts they like and subscribe - for free - to that show s feed . when a new podcast is available it is automatically sent to the device when connected to a computer. it is totally going to kill the business model of radio thinks curry. i just did a tour of madison avenue where all the big brands and advertising agencies of the world are he says. and they are scared to death of the next generation - like my daughter who is 14 - who don t listen to radio. they are on msn they ve got their ipod their mp3 player they ve got their xbox - they are not listening to radio. so how are they going to reach these audiences it is the distribution that is changing and the barriers are being brought down so everyone can be part of it. it is a fledgling movement but it is gaining momentum now that people have started thinking about how to make a business from it. ian fogg jupiter research analyst thinks there could be potential for business but it could take an interesting turn if big companies like apple and microsoft get involved. it is a nascent area but quite exciting. it is yet another area that demonstrates the move to a digital lifestyle and digital home is not over he says. podcasting is one of those interesting areas that bridges what you do at home and what you do out and about - a classic hybrid. it is another aspect of the time-shifting of content - the latest industry buzzword for being able to listen to what you want when and wherever you want. audiences are in the 10s 100s and 1 000s rather than millions. more than 4 300 podcasts are currently listed. curry s daily source code - which he committed to doing daily to inspire the community - has 10s of thousands of listeners. but dave winer is doubtful. he designed the format called rss (really simple syndication) which gives web users an easy way to keep updated automatically on sites they like. podcasts rely on his technology because it is the way they are distributed. he is also writer of the longest-running weblog on the net scripting news. he thinks its power lies in its democratising potential not in its over-hyped business promise. we re the sources the people doing stuff and podcasting is a way to tell people who care what we re doing. no matter how you look at it commercialising this medium isn t going to make very much money he says. podcasting is going to be a medium of niches with audiences measured in the single digits like e-mail or blogs. maybe in a few years maybe six or seven digits. but it will have to sustain interest beyond the hype balloon. curry and associate ron bloom s new venture called podshow is to help ordinary people produce post distribute and market their podcasts. because of the way podcasts work based on rss the latest podcasts which people can select mean that they are ready-made targets. when you look at podcasting - wow this is a pretty interesting audience. the audience is pre-selected. they have decided to subscribe to your program explains curry. advertising in his eyes can be tailored to podcasts to make it more imaginative and unobtrusive. how i believe this will work is to create a network that in aggregation will have enough numbers to support a return on investment for the advertisers and for the podcasters. i have 50 60 70 000 listeners. i could make a couple of bucks off that but not much. if you are talking a million podcasters and then you can kind of divide that amongst ourselves then that is kind of interesting. essentially he says if you are doing a bass fishing podcast someone who is selling bait and tackle will probably want to advertise on your show. he is clear the ads will not be the traditional in-your-face type familiar to commercial radio now. we are really going to see these microcosms and commerce will be all over the place. it is happening already. coffee-loving curry has sold $4 000 worth of coffee machines through a referral link to amazon from his site. others use in-show promotions like the dawn and drew show. one eric rice has won sponsorship from warner bros. he can now legally play the music of a band warner bros wants to push. some commentators on the net say it has a similar feel to the dotcom days. others say it is just another element of setting media free from big companies and letting people be creative. one thing is for sure; they are not about to disappear in a hurry. the creative forces behind radio are elated says curry. for now he tunes out the negative comments within the podcasting community. i should be knighted for this he adds with a wry chuckle people are going to be so happy to sit at home make their podcast and make a little money.

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

dozens held over id fraud site twenty-eight people including a briton have been arrested after a global operation against a website allegedly involved in identity fraud. those arrested are accused of operating shadowcrew.com which investigators claim was a global clearing house for criminals involved in credit card fraud. a 19-year-old man from camberley surrey was arrested by the national hi-tech crime unit but has been bailed. operation firewall led by the us secret service involved seven nations. the british teenager was arrested on wednesday but details only emerged on friday. he has now been bailed to return to a surrey police station in december. all 28 people detained globally are suspected of being involved in an internet-based network which stole people s identities and used computers and websites to defraud credit card companies. the authorities in the us who have indicted 19 people in newark new jersey estimate the fraud caused losses of more than $4m. assistant us attorney scott christie said several people had been arrested in argentina bulgaria canada estonia poland and sweden. mr christie said one of the ringleaders was believed to be a russian anatoly tyukanov. investigators from 30 law enforcement agencies worldwide spent 15 months looking into the activities of three websites - shadowcrew carderplanet and darkprofits. the us secret service was first tipped off in july 2003. an nhtcu spokeswoman said the american investigators went undercover on the shadowcrew website and discovered some of the site s 4 000 members were using it for organised crime purposes. she said criminals were using the websites to traffic counterfeit credit cards and false identification information and documents such as credit cards driver s licences passports and birth certificates. the websites shared tips on how to commit fraud and provided a forum by which people could buy the information and tools they needed to commit such crime she said. the shadowcrew site which has now been taken over by the us secret service listed several discussion groups in english and russian including one on hacking spam and online anonymity tools. the head of the nhtcu acting detective chief superintendent mick deats said: this investigation has resulted in the significant disruption of organised criminals using the internet for profit. we believe that the suspects have trafficked at least 1.7 million stolen credit card numbers leading to losses by financial institutions running into the millions. chief supt deats went on to warn: the internet offers huge legitimate benefits for modern society; however with it brings powerful opportunities for those seeking to abuse those benefits for criminal gain. your identity is one of the most precious commodities. criminals who try to steal the personal and financial information of ordinary citizens as well as the confidential and proprietary information of companies engaged in e-commerce will be targeted by law enforcement.

europe backs digital tv lifestyle how people receive their digital entertainment in the future could change following the launch of an ambitious european project. in nice last week the european commission announced its networked & electronic media (nem) initiative. its broad scope stretches from the way media is created through each of the stages of its distribution to its playback. the commission wants people to be able to locate the content they desire and have it delivered seamlessly when on the move at home or at work no matter who supplies the devices network content or content protection scheme. more than 120 experts were in nice to share the vision of interconnected future and hear pledges of support from companies such as nokia intel philips alcatel france telecom thomson and telefonica. it might initially appear to be surprising that companies in direct competition are keen to work together. but again and again speakers stated they could not see incompatible stand-alone solutions working. a long-term strategy for the evolution and convergence of technologies and services would be required. the european commission is being pragmatic in its approach. they have identified that many groups have defined the forms of digital media in the areas that nem encompasses. the nem approach is to take a serious look at what is available and what is in the pipeline pick out the best bring them together and identify where the gaps are. where it finds holes it will develop standards to fill them. what is significant is that such a large and powerful organisation has stated its desire for digital formats to be open to all and work on any gadget. this is bound to please if not surprise many individuals and user organisations who feel that the wishes of the holder of rights to content are normally considered over and above those of the consumer. many feel that the most difficult and challenging area for the commission will be to identify a solution for different digital rights management (drm) schemes. currently drm solutions are incompatible locking certain types of purchased content making them unplayable on all platforms. with the potential of having a percentage of every media transaction that takes place globally the prize for being the supplier of the world s dominant drm scheme is huge. although entertainment is an obvious first step it will encompass the remote provisions of healthcare energy efficiency and control of the smart home. the 10-year plan brings together the work of many currently running research projects that the ec has been funding for a number of years. simon perry is the editor of the digital lifestyles website which covers the impact of technology on media

kennedy predicts bigger turnout voters pent up passion could confound predictions of a low turnout in the coming general election charles kennedy has said. the liberal democrat leader predicted concerns over iraq and other international and domestic issue would express themselves during the campaign. his comments come as an inquiry looks at how best to boost voter turnouts. ex-foreign secretary robin cook said people were not apathetic but fed up of pager politics and not being heard. he like mr kennedy pointed to the hundreds of thousands of people who demonstrated against plans for the iraq war. mr cook who is giving evidence to the power inquiry into voter turnout rates told bbc radio 4 s today programme it was not fair to blame the public who were more interested in politics than ever before . they are turned off by the way we do politics in britain. there s a message there for politicians. he urged politicians to avoid negative campaigning and to speak more from the heart . we should be not so afraid to say what we stand for. he also criticised the cult of personality politics: there s far too much interest in celebrities. politics are in danger of becoming another branch of the celebrity industry. the government has tried a number of things in an attempt to boost voter turnout which fell to 59% in the last general election in 2001. this has included bringing in directly elected mayors to head local authorities and trialling postal voting.

van gogh festival film withdrawn murdered director theo van gogh s controversial film submission has been pulled from the rotterdam film festival because of security fears. it was one of three of his works to be shown as part of a freedom of expression event in tribute to the late film-maker s life. the film is critical of the treatment of women under islam. its tv screening is thought to have led to his murder. the 10-day dutch festival begins on wednesday. submission was made with liberal somali-dutch politician ayaan hirsi ali and was due to be shown on 30 january. van gogh was shot and stabbed to death in november 2004 several months after receiving death threats following submission s first broadcast on dutch television. two of van gogh s other films will be shown as planned including the theatrical world premiere of his last feature 06/05. festival director sandra den hamer said: the festival reflects what happens around us and within cinema itself. the festival opens with the french film the 10th district court moments of trials made by raymond depardon. the event sees 14 films competing to win three top tiger awards which aim to introduce promising new talent. new sections added to this year s festival include cinema of the future and cinema of the world with special focus on russian and south-east asian productions. there is also an iraqi-german offering entitled underexposure which looks at life in iraq after saddam hussein.

chancellor rallies labour voters gordon brown has issued a rallying cry to supporters warning the stakes are too high to stay at home or protest vote in the next general election. the chancellor said the poll - expected to fall on 5 may - would give a clear and fundamental choice between labour investment and tory cuts. he told his party s spring conference the tories must not be allowed to win. the conservatives and lib dems insisted that voters faced higher taxes and means-testing under labour. to a packed audience at gateshead s sage centre mr brown accused shadow chancellor oliver letwin of plotting cuts that were the equivalent of sacking every teacher gp and nurse in the country. laying into the conservative s record in government he said: i give you this promise - with labour britain will never return to the mistakes of erm and 10% inflation 15% interest rates £3bn in lost reserves 250 000 repossessed one million in negative equity and three million unemployed. never again tory boom and bust. this will be the central dividing line at the election between a conservative party taking britain back and planning deep cuts of £35bn in our services and a labour government taking britain forward which on a platform of stability will reform and renew our hospitals schools and public services and i am proud to say spend by 2008 £60bn more. turning to the economy the chancellor promised to continue economic stability and growth in a third term in power. he also pledged to continue the fight against child and pensioner poverty. and he promised help to get young people on the property ladder. my message to the thousands of young couples waiting to obtain their first home is that housing is rightly now at the centre of our coming manifesto he said. and the next labour government will match our low mortgage rates with a new first-time buyers initiative. in the speech which prompted a standing ovation he also promised to end teenage unemployment within the next five years. he also highlighted plans for 100% debt relief for the world s poorest countries a national minimum wage for 16 and 17-year-olds the creation of a network of children s centres and flexibility in maternity leave. responding to the speech shadow chief secretary to the treasury george osborne said: this was more talk from gordon brown. we ve heard it all before. instead of talking about the future he kept on talking about the past. he completely failed to say which taxes he would put up to fill the black hole in his spending plans. there will be a simple choice at the election - value for money and lower taxes with the conservatives or more waste and higher taxes under tony blair and gordon brown. liberal democrat shadow chancellor vince cable warned the picture was not as rosy as mr brown would like to portray it. for all his trumpeting of labour s management of the economy gordon brown s record is very mixed he said. gordon brown has created a system of massive centralisation and bureaucracy a system which subjects millions of people to means testing and a system of taxation which is extremely complex. for all his positive words gordon brown is faced with economic problems looming on the horizon not least the unprecedented levels of personal debt facing the nation. also in gateshead the prime minister took questions sent in by e-mail text message and telephone as part of labour s attempt to engage the public in their campaign. mr blair told the audience he believed the iraq war would have made britain a safer place if its emerging democracy succeeded and that he wanted to bring troops home as soon as possible but not before the job was done. he also said he wanted to carry on as pm because i still think that there are big changes our country needs .

microsoft sets sights on spyware windows users could soon be paying microsoft to keep pcs free of spyware. following the takeover of anti-spyware firm giant microsoft said it would soon release a toolkit that strips machines of the irritating programs. although initially free microsoft has not ruled out charging people who want to keep this toolkit up to date. surveys show that almost every windows pc is infested with spyware programs that do everything from bombard users with adverts to steal login data. microsoft said that a beta version of the toolkit to clean up windows machines should be available within 30 days. designed for pcs running windows 2000 and xp the utility will clean out spyware programs constantly monitor what happens on a pc and will be regularly updated to catch the latest variants. before now many of microsoft s other security boosting programs such as the firewall in windows xp have been given away free. but mike nash vice president in microsoft s security business unit said it was still working out pricing and licensing issues. charging for future versions has not been discounted he said. we ll come up with a plan and roll that out he said. the plan could turn out to be a lucrative one for microsoft. a recent survey by earthlink and webroot found that 90% of pcs are infested with the surreptitious software and that on average each one is harbouring 28 separate spyware programs. currently users wanting protection from spyware have turned to free programs such as spybot and ad-aware. spyware comes in many forms and at its most benign exploits lazy browsing habits to install itself and subject users to unwanted adverts. other forms hijack net browser settings to force people to view pages they would otherwise never visit. at its most malign spyware watches everything that people do with their pc and steals login information and other personal data. microsoft s announcement about spyware comes after it bought small new york software firm giant company software. terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

savvy searchers fail to spot ads internet search engine users are an odd mix of naive and sophisticated suggests a report into search habits. the report by the us pew research center reveals that 87% of searchers usually find what they were looking for when using a search engine. it also shows that few can spot the difference between paid-for results and organic ones. the report reveals that 84% of net users say they regularly use google ask jeeves msn and yahoo when online. almost 50% of those questioned said they would trust search engines much less if they knew information about who paid for results was being hidden. according to figures gathered by the pew researchers the average users spends about 43 minutes per month carrying out 34 separate searches and looks at 1.9 webpages for each hunt. a significant chunk of net users 36% carry out a search at least weekly and 29% of those asked only look every few weeks. for 44% of those questioned the information they are looking for is critical to what they are doing and is information they simply have to find. search engine users also tend to be very loyal and once they have found a site they feel they can trust tend to stick with it. according to pew research 44% of searchers use just a single search engine 48% use two or three and a small number 7% consult more than three sites. tony macklin spokesman for ask jeeves said the results reflected its own research which showed that people use different search engines because the way the sites gather information means they can provide different results for the same query. despite this liking for search sites half of those questioned said they could get the same information via other routes. a small number 17% said they wouldn t really miss search engines if they did not exist. the remaining 33% said they could not live without search sites. more than two-thirds of those questioned 68% said they thought that the results they were presented with were a fair and unbiased selection of the information on a topic that can be found on the net. alongside the growing sophistication of net users is a lack of awareness about paid-for results that many search engines provide alongside lists of websites found by indexing the web. of those asked 62% were unaware that someone has paid for some of the results they see when they carry out a search. only 18% of all searchers say they can tell which results are paid for and which are not. said the pew report: this finding is ironic since nearly half of all users say they would stop using search engines if they thought engines were not being clear about how they presented paid results. commenting mr macklin said sponsored results must be clearly marked and though they might help with some queries user testing showed that people need to be able to spot the difference.

moore questions captaincy brian moore believes the england captain should not be a full-back. jason robinson has led the team during their opening three defeats in the six nations tournament in the absence of fly-half jonny wilkinson. the world champions have struggled since the retirement of former captain martin johnson a lock forward. and former england captain moore told the bbc: full-backs are too far away from the action. that s not a reflection on robinson personally. he added: i just think the point of influence needs to move closer to the pack - which is after all where games usually start and finish. moore says a lack of cohesion in the forwards is one of the reasons why england have lost against wales france and ireland in this year s tournament. assertiveness in the pack isn t there we re not getting enough people into the breakdowns he explained. wer e not getting quick ball which means the backs are being stifled. their creativity depends on quick ball and we re not getting that. with injuries depriving him of key players like wilkinson coach andy robinson has given youngsters such as harry ellis and jamie noon a chance. and moore believes the last two games against italy and scotland are a good opportunity to experiment further. the problem is the players that are around to replace the icons which have been lost because of retirement and injury don t have the requisite experience moore added. you can t do anything about that but play them. there are players who have been knocking on the door it s time for them to be looked at in these last two games because there s nothing on them. we then go into next season with a greater certainty of who can and cannot handle the pressure of international rugby.

security warning over fbi virus the us federal bureau of investigation is warning that a computer virus is being spread via e-mails that purport to be from the fbi. the e-mails show that they have come from an fbi.gov address and tell recipients that they have accessed illegal websites. the messages warn that their internet use has been monitored by the fbi s internet fraud complaint center. an attachment in the e-mail contains the virus the fbi said. the message asks recipients to click on the attachment and answer some questions about their internet use. but rather than being a questionnaire the attachment contains a virus that infects the recipient s computer according to the agency. it is not clear what the virus does once it has infected a computer. users are warned never to open attachment from unsolicited e-mails or from people they do not know. recipients of this or similar solicitations should know that the fbi does not engage in the practice of sending unsolicited e-mails to the public in this manner the fbi said in a statement. the bureau is investigating the phoney e-mails. the agency earlier this month shut down fbi.gov accounts used to communicate with the public because of a security breach. a spokeswoman said the two incidents appear to be unrelated.

man utd to open books to glazer manchester united s board has agreed to give us tycoon malcolm glazer access to its books. earlier this month mr glazer presented the board with detailed proposals on an offer to buy the football club. in a statement the club said it would allow mr glazer limited due diligence to give him the opportunity to take the proposal on to a formal bid. but it said it continued to oppose mr glazer s plans calling his assumptions aggressive and his plan damaging . many of manchester united s supporters own shares in the club and the fan-based group shareholders united is strongly opposed to any takeover by mr glazer. about 300 fans protested outside the old trafford ground two days ago. rival local club manchester city has pleaded with visiting fans not to protest inside its ground when the two teams play a televised match on sunday. manchester united s response comes as little surprise as the board made clear. any board has a responsibility to consider a bona fide offer proposal the club said in its statement. should it become a firm offer it should be at a price that the board is likely to regard as fair and on terms which may be deliverable . but it also stressed that it stayed opposed to mr glazer s proposal. the board continues to believe that mr glazer s business plan assumptions are aggressive the statement said and the direct and indirect financial strain on the business could be damaging. whether or not the bid is attractive in monetary terms in the case of manchester united many investors hold the stock for sentimental rather than financial reasons. at present mr glazer and his family hold a 28.1% stake making them manchester united s second biggest shareholders. they own the successful tampa bay buccaneers american football team based in florida. if the family makes a formal offer they will need the support of the club s biggest shareholders. irish horse racing millionaires jp mcmanus and john magnier own 29% of united through their investment vehicle cubic expression and have yet to express a view on the bid approach. a group of five mps are calling on the department of trade and industry to block any takeover of the club by the us football magnate on public interest grounds. they have signed a house of commons motion and tony lloyd the manchester central mp whose constituency includes the club s old trafford ground has pledged to take the matter to tony blair if necessary . the commons motion says any takeover designed to transform the club into a private company would be against the interests of those supporters and football . however the dti has dismissed the proposal. a spokesman said the department did not believe there was a case for changing the enterprise act so that takeovers of football clubs could be looked at on non-competition grounds. mr glazer s offer values the club at £800m ($1.5bn). pitched at 300p per share it also relies less on debt to finance it than an earlier approach from the us tycoon which was rejected out of hand. manchester united shares closed at 270.25p on friday down 3.75p on the day.

imf cuts german growth estimate the international monetary fund is to cut its 2005 growth forecast for the german economy from 1.8% to 0.8% the financial times deutschland reported. the imf will also reduce its growth estimate for the 12-member eurozone economy from 2.2% to 1.6% the newspaper reported. the german economy has been faltering with unemployment levels rising to a seventy-year high of 5.2 million. its sluggish performance continues to hamper the entire eurozone. the imf s draft world economic outlook - due to be published in april - would point to a marked deterioration in germany s economy the ft report said. in september the imf had said that german growth for the current year would be 1.8%. the imf has also revised eurozone forecasts the paper said taking into account high oil prices the strength of the euro and weak demand in many of the world s leading economies. europe s economic difficulties have been highlighted by the organisation for economic co-operation and development which argued in a report published on tuesday that the continent could only achieve us living standards by freeing up its labour markets. the eurozone does not look like it has a self-sustaining recovery james carrick an economist with abn amro told the newspaper. it is too dependant on the rest of the world.

incredibles win animation awards the incredibles movie has beaten shrek 2 to the main prizes at hollywood s animation awards the annies. the superhero film was named best animated feature while brad bird won best director writer and voice actor for his role as designer edna mode. the incredibles won a total of 10 awards - but shrek 2 which had seven nominations went home empty-handed. the two movies will compete with shark tale in the best animated film category of the oscars at the end of february. the incredibles awards came despite shrek 2 s greater box office success. shrek 2 took $881m (£468m) around the world compared with $576m (£306m) for the incredibles. spongebob squarepants was named best animated tv show while tv comedy king of the hill picked up two prizes including one for actress brittany murphy s voice work. tom kenny who provides the voice for spongebob squarepants hosted sunday s ceremony at the alex theater los angeles. the awards are handed out by the international animated film society. finding nemo won nine annies last year.

quiksilver moves for rossignol shares of skis rossignol the world s largest ski-maker have jumped as much as 15% on speculation that it will be bought by us surfwear firm quiksilver. the owners of rossignol the boix-vives family are said to be considering an offer from quiksilver. analysts believe other sporting goods companies may now take a closer look at rossignol prompting an auction and pushing the sale price higher. nike and k2 have previously been mentioned as possible suitors. rossignol shares touched 17.70 euros before falling back to trade 7.8% higher at 16.60 euros. european sporting goods companies have seen foreign revenues squeezed by a slump in the value of the us dollar making a takeover more attractive analysts said. companies such as quiksilver would be able to cut costs by selling rossignol skis through their shops they added. the boix-vives family is thought to have spent the past couple of years sounding out possible suitors for rossignol which also makes golf equipment snowboards and sports clothing.

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.

sir paul rocks super bowl crowds sir paul mccartney wowed fans with a live mini-concert at american football s super bowl - and avoided any janet jackson-style controversies. the 62-year-old sang hey jude and other beatles songs in a 12-minute set at half-time during the game in florida. last year jackson exposed a breast during a dance routine causing outrage among millions of tv viewers and landing the cbs tv network a fine. sir paul however did nothing more racy than remove his jacket as he sang. organisers were widely considered to be playing it safe this year by booking 62-year-old sir paul for his second super bowl show. three years ago he was invited to perform at the first super bowl after the september 11 attacks and performed his specially-written song freedom. this time he started off the show at the alltel stadium in jacksonville florida with the beatles numbers drive my car and get back. he then performed a mellow version of live and let die the james bond theme he recorded with the band wings. finally he closed the show with a rousing version of hey jude. the former beatle resisted any temptation to refer to janet jackson s headline-grabbing performance last year instead keeping banter between songs to a minimum in order to squeeze as much music as he could into his slot. the singer removed his black jacket halfway through the show - but any fans hoping for a second nipple-gate were to be disappointed as he kept his red sweatshirt on underneath. earlier the black eyed peas and alicia keys had provided the night s other high-profile entertainment by performing in a pre-game show. black eyed peas singer fergie was dressed in a tight orange top and purple hotpants but nothing in her performance was likely to upset tv watchdogs. after the controversy last year - which saw cbs fined a record $550 000 (£292 000) by federal regulators - super bowl organisers had turned to producer don mischer to oversee this year s half-time show. his previous production credits included olympic opening and closing ceremonies. the super bowl is watched by an audience of 144.4 million in the us with many of the people watching are said to tune in specifically to see the entertainment put on around the event. michael jackson aerosmith diana ross gloria estefan and phil collins are among the stars who have previously graced the super bowl stage.

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

double injury blow strikes wales wales centre sonny parker and number eight ryan jones will miss saturday s game with italy because of injury. parker has not recovered from a trapped nerve in his neck that kept him out of the win over england and tom shanklin is expected to continue at centre. jones damaged his collar bone after coming on as a replacement against england and joins flanker colin charvis (foot injury) on the sidelines. meanwhile mike ruddock may make gavin henson his first-choice kicker in rome. the centre was wales hero in the 11-9 six nations win over england landing a huge late penalty from wide out to clinch the game. first-choice kicker stephen jones handed over responsibility because of henson s greater kicking range but the fly-half had already missed a number of shots at goal. our first aim was to get gavin settled into the team but giving him the kicks is something we ll talk about in selection this week wales coach mike ruddock told bbc sport wales. henson himself says he is relishing all the media hype that has been heaped on him since last saturday s game. i thrive on it and think it makes me perform better he said. i m glad it s a short week before the italy game. there was so much build-up before england but we fly out to rome on thursday and we ll be back playing again.

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

new foot and mouth action urged a senior tory mp has criticised agriculture department defra s lackadaisical approach to planning for a future foot and mouth outbreak. public accounts committee chairman edward leigh was giving his reaction to a report by a government watchdog on lessons to be learnt from the crisis. the national audit office said defra had improved its capacity to deal with future livestock disease outbreaks. but mr leigh said the department was dragging its heels . that comment referred to the setting up of a scheme to share any future compensation costs with industry. he also said defra had been dreadfully slow in paying some of its bills dating from the foot and mouth crisis. the outbreak which began in 2001 led to the slaughter of 6.5 million animals devastated many farms and rural businesses and is estimated to have cost the uk up to £8bn. four years after the outbreak defra is yet to begin its planned review of some of its contractors costs and £40m of invoices remain unpaid mr leigh said. mr leigh also pointed out that the introduction of an it system to help control future outbreaks had been delayed. in november it emerged european commission compensation amounted to just over a third of the money the uk government had hoped to get as reimbursement for the billions lost through the foot and mouth crisis. ministers had hoped to get £900m from the european union vet fund to help with animal slaughter and other costs but in the end was granted £349m. that was because the uk had valued the culled animals at between two and three times the commission s assessment of their likely market value. national audit office chief sir john bourn said a new compensation scheme was now being looked at. on the issue of the unpaid invoices sir john said defra had paid 97% of the £1.3bn submitted by contractors since 2001 but has not agreed a final settlement with 57 contractors pending the results of its investigations . mr leigh said being better prepared would also help avoid the need for mass funeral pyres which provided an unsettling images of the 2001 outbreak . a defra spokesman said: we welcome the report. it acknowledges the progress the department has made since 2001 - particularly on contingency planning and our improved capacity and preparedness for combating another major disease outbreak. however the department is aware that there are some areas requiring further work and we are working to resolve them as soon as is practicable.

barbarians 19-47 new zealand new zealand proved too strong for an australian-dominated barbarians to round off their unbeaten northern hemisphere tour with an easy win. rico gear ran in two of the all blacks seven tries in what was a predominantly second-string line-up. the baa-baas did threaten scoring tries through albert van den bergh xavier rush and andrea lo cicero but never looked like winning. all black aaron mauger was in good form with the boot adding 10 points. the all blacks featured only two of the side which started last weekend s emphatic test victory over france in paris while the baa-baas had nine wallabies in their starting line-up. and new zealand coach graham henry said: it was a quality performance against a very experienced side and a number of young guys came through very well. they learnt from the older players and this was a way of thanking the guys who had been mentoring them on the tour. but the running rugby the crowd had been hoping for rarely materialised. marty holah got the all blacks onslaught under way with his fifth-minute try before rush hit back moments later. but new zealand went ahead once more as gear made use of the space vacated by a temporarily injured chris latham to slide in. ma a nonu then found his way through the barbarians defence to give his side a 19-7 half-time lead. the hosts failed to ignite in the second half and the moment gear scored his second just after the interval there was only ever going to be one winner. lo cicero the sole european for the barbarians bundled over for a try to briefly curtail the deficit. but the match was blighted by controversy moments later when justin marshall was felled with a high tackle by jimmy cowan. referee andy turner waved play on and casey laulala coasted in for his side s fifth try. jermoe keino and piri weepu both added tries to the all blacks tally before the final whistle while van den bergh gained some consolation for the baa-baas. after the match barbarians coach bob dwyer warned that south african flanker schalk burger needed a proper off-season break to maintain his standards. burger 21 was recently crowned player of the year by both his peers and the international rugby board but has struggled for form in recent weeks. it s his first year at that level and he was phenomenal up until the end of the southern hemisphere season. i don t think he s played anywhere near that level on tour he said.

uk firms embracing e-commerce uk firms are embracing internet trading opportunities as never before e-commerce minister mike o brien says. a government-commissioned study ranked the uk third in its world index of use of information and communication technology (ict). the report suggests 69% of uk firms are now using broadband and that 30% of micro businesses are trading online. mr o brien said uk businesses were sprinting forward in ict use but that there were more challenges ahead. the report carried out independently by consultants booz allen hamilton and hi europe placed the uk third behind sweden and ireland for business use of ict. it showed british business brought greater maturity to their ict use by using broadband in increased numbers bringing ict into their business plans and using new technologies such as voice activated programmes and desktop video conferences. mr o brien said: the increase in the proportion of business connected by broadband shows that uk companies are embracing the opportunities that ict can bring. it is particularly encouraging to see that small businesses are beginning to narrow the digital divide that appeared to have opened up in recent years. the government would play its part in cultivating an environment where information and communication technologies can flourish mr o brien said. the clear message the report sends is that effective use of ict can bring real improvements in business performance for all business. however we are not at the finishing line yet and many challenges remain if the uk is to reach its aim of becoming a world-leading e-economy he added. the international benchmarking study was based on 8 000 telephone interviews with businesses of which more than 2 700 were uk businesses. it is the eighth in a series of examining the adoption and deployment of ict in the world s most industrialised nations.

eminem secret gig venue revealed rapper eminem is to play an intimate gig in london on saturday following a show on the river thames on friday. the us star will play just two songs at a night showcasing his label shady records at the islington academy. eminem performed on hms belfast on friday which is docked on the river thames where he filmed two songs for bbc one s top of the pops. he arrived in the uk on friday following his appearance at the mtv europe music awards in rome. other rap acts who may appear at the islington gig include stat quo proof dj green lantern swift and obie trice. eminem s latest album soared to the top of the us chart after just three days on sale in record shops. encore is now a chart-topper on both sides of the atlantic following its debut at number one in the uk. the fourth album from the rap star was on sale for two days before it outsold all of its rivals. the album was released early in an effort to combat both physical and online piracy. eminem s album includes the track mosh which is a tirade against us president bush and the presence of us troops in iraq. the rapper was criticised earlier this year after a performance on bbc one s top of the pops in april led 12 viewers to complain he was lewd and offensive . the complaints about the star grabbing his crotch were upheld by the bbc. the performer had been asked to tone his act down after rehearsal but ignored this request during the live broadcast a bbc statement read. although his gestures were part of the rap culture they had gone beyond what is expected.

john peel replacement show begins the permanent replacement for late dj john peel s bbc radio 1 show goes on air on tuesday with three hosts chosen to fill the legendary presenter s slot. rock dj huw stephens will go on air in the 2300 slot every tuesday with black music champion ras kwame on wednesdays and dance dj rob da bank on thursdays. rob da bank filled in after peel had a heart attack aged 65 in october. all three will play diverse unpredictable and non-commercial songs under the banner of the onemusic show. radio 1 said the station was not trying to replace peel but would rise to the challenge of keeping his legacy alive with unpredictable music. the three djs were chosen for their in-depth musical knowledge across a variety of musical genres the station said. rob da bank is one of the hosts of the blue room an early morning weekend show which plays electronic and dance music. huw stephens has been one half of the thursday night show bethan and huw in wales which explores new music especially up-and-coming acts in wales. and ras kwame is host of 100% homegrown on radio 1 s digital station 1xtra dedicated to showcasing the best hip-hop and garage. another change to the station line-up will see sara cox return after maternity leave. she will host the lunchtime show on saturdays from this week. good luck to all three of them not one dj could fill peels boots so it s probably a good idea to get them all contributing. this time next year i hope we are saying how well these djs have done but i fear this time next year we will really realise how much john peel will be forever missed. very good idea to continue the legacy without attempting to replace john peel. also there will surely be a wider spectrum for international music as three top radio djs unite under the one world name. congratulations! the whole glory of john peel was the fact he was not commited to one genre. he played what he liked across the range of music.... this is not going to be the same and all they seem to be doing is what they already have. bring back steve lamacq. the obvious heir to john peel is the marvellous wonderful and talented claire kember from totallyradio.com. this lady is young and fresh and is one of the most knowledgeable and likeable people in british broadcasting today. everyone who listens to her show understands and compares her to the ledgendary john peel. bbc radio should seek out the real talent from internet radio stations people who are making a real impact on the world of music and the world in general.

cactus diet deal for phytopharm a slimming aid made from a southern african cactus is set to be developed by uk firm phytopharm and unilever. anglo-dutch food giant unilever will help the pharmaceutical firm develop the snacks containing hoodia extract. phytopharm shares jumped 10.7% on the news with analysts saying sales of $600m (£309m) a year were possible. the plant licensed to phytopharm in 1997 has been used for thousands of years by the sans bushmen of the kalahari desert to stave off hunger. studies have reportedly shown the plant curbs appetite instead of reducing calorific intake like many existing products. phytopharm will receive an initial fee of £6.5m from unilever - out of a potential total of £21m - as well as future royalties on product sales. under the deal production of the hoodia cactus at phytopharm s nursery in south africa will also rise from eight million plants to potentially hundreds of millions said phytopharm chief executive richard dixey. the firm had initially hoped to market a slimming drug from hoodia with pfizer. but the research collaboration came to an end in 2003. analysts said unilever could launch the new products in 2007. this deal goes a long way to restoring the market faith in phytopharm s pipeline after the pfizer exit said analyst erling refsum at nomura.

ukip candidate suspended in probe eurosceptic party ukip have suspended a candidate for allegedly suggesting the criminally insane should be killed. john houston 54 was due to stand in the east kilbride seat in lanarkshire at the next election. but he was suspended after his reported views including the return of the british empire were sent to two scottish newspapers. ukip spokesman mark croucher said those who selected mr houston knew nothing of his views. the episode comes at a difficult time for ukip soon after the high-profile departure of mep robert kilroy-silk. mr houston is alleged to have said that the organs of the criminally insane should be made available to law-abiding members of the community and proposed the legalisation of drugs and the sex trade. the document reportedly said: we re looking for the resurrection of the british empire. the problems for the human race - environmental and others - can only be dealt with on a global scale and that calls for a radical alliance of the english-speaking nations which they are uniquely able to do. mr croucher said the main issue would be that mr houston s reported views had been presented as ukip policy which they were not. he said they might have been submissions to a committee working on the party s manifesto but would not have been matched to mr houston when he was standing to become a candidate. he told bbc news: he appears to have said these things. we have suspended him as a member and as a candidate. by all accounts none of this was mentioned at his selection meeting. it is simply a distraction from the task in hand the eu constitution not individual idiocies. mr houston was quoted in the herald newspaper saying: i feel ukip have over-reacted and overshot the runway. peter nielson who is ukip scotland chairman said he had suspended mr houston on friday night. he will remain suspended while the matter is being investigated and then we will decide if and what further action will be taken. he said that any evidence would be looked into and mr houston may be interviewed by the party. he added: i can t comment too much at the moment i have one version from him but i haven t seen the papers yet.

isinbayeva claims new world best pole vaulter yelena isinbayeva broke her own indoor world record by clearing 4.89 metres in lievin on saturday. it was the russian s 12th world record of her career and came just a few days after she cleared 4.88m at the norwich union grand prix in birmingham. the olympic champion went on to attempt 5.05m at the meeting on france but failed to clear that height. in the men s 60m former olympic 100m champion maurice greene could only finish second to leonard scott. it was greene s second consecutive defeat at the hands of his fellow american who also won in birmingham last week. i ran my race perfectly said scott who won in 6.46secs his best time indoors. i am happy even if i know that maurice is a long way from being at his peak at the start of the season.

row brewing over peer-to-peer ads music download networks are proving popular not just with an audience of youngsters keen to take advantage of free music but with advertisers equally keen to reach out to a captive audience. the debate over the legitimacy of file-sharing networks rages on as the music industry continues its threats to close the services down for good. meanwhile the millions of downloaders are proving both an advertiser s dream come true and a branding nightmare. paul myers chief executive of wippit - a peer to peer service which provides paid-for music downloads - believes it is time advertisers stopped providing oxygen for companies that support illegal downloading. you may be surprised to know that current advertisers on the most popular peer to peer service edonkey who now steadfastly support copyright theft with real cash money include nat west vodafone o2 first direct ntl and renault he said in an open letter to the british phonographic industry last month. he urged people to follow his lead and dump brands associated with companies such as edonkey. the bpi is equally quick to condemn established brands becoming bedfellows with peer to peer networks. networks like edonkey kazaa and grokster facilitate illegal filesharing. the bpi strongly believes that any reputable company should look carefully at the support they are giving these networks through their advertising revenue it said in a statement. illegal file-sharers steal millions of pounds worth of music through these services. we are sure that the companies advertising on them would not put up with theft on such a scale from their own businesses it said. but the issue is often more complicated for advertisers said mark mulligan a music analyst with jupiter research. this has been a problem for a long time ever since the days of napster he told the bbc news website. the reality is that the millions of downloaders represent a very attractive audience. advertisers probably pay a lot less for putting ads here than on more respected sites and they are reaching the perfect target audience he said. if you put the legality issues aside not to advertise here would mean missing out on a valuable audience he added. meanwhile companies contacted by the bbc news website insist that they were not directly aware of where their ads have been appearing. onetel adverts were spotted on edonkey this week and its response was typical. we have investigated this matter and believe that one of our affiliate partners has placed this advert without our knowledge. it is not our policy to advertise through peer-to-peer networks read a statement from the discount phone firm. it has requested the advert be removed immediately said a spokeswoman. similarly telecommunications firm ntl blames its media buying agency which places adverts with third party networks featuring thousands of sites. since the matter was brought to its attention last month the agency has strict instructions to make sure ads do not appear on such sites a spokesman told the bbc news website. however mr mulligan was not entirely convinced by these explanations. while smaller brands might not necessarily be aware of where the money they allocate to online advertising actually ends this is no excuse for well-known brands he said. i would be surprised if these brands didn t have the know-how to prevent this happening he said. at the moment edonkey is enjoying the benefits of having some very well-known faces advert on its network. many big brands have leveraged the opportunity including perhaps two of the biggest brands in the world - senator john kerry and president george w. bush said chief executive sam yagan. there are some distinct advantages of advertising on such a network he thinks. peer-to-peer clients offer big brands a unique opportunity to engage with their customers where they re most comfortable: at their desks interacting with their favourite digital media he said.

blair to face mps amid feud talk tony blair faces his first prime minister s questions of 2005 after a week of renewed speculation about his relationship with gordon brown. meanwhile the chancellor is leaving britain on a high-profile tour of africa to highlight poverty issues. but before doing so he insisted he still trusted mr blair despite claims to the contrary in a new book. labour mps have warned against disunity and tory leader michael howard may well take up the theme in the commons. the tories have already accused the prime minister and his chancellor of behaving like schoolboys squabbling in a playground . michael howard is likely to want to capitalise further on the spat when he goes head-to-head with the prime minister in the commons. at a campaign poster launch on tuesday mr brown was joined by alan milburn who mr blair controversially put in charge of election planning in place of the chancellor. later this week the prime minister is due to set out the themes of his party s next election manifesto which for the past two polls have been drawn up by the chancellor. mr brown meanwhile is visiting tanzania mozambique and kenya to highlight the plight of many africans hit by aids war and famine - issues which mr blair has also spoken out on. the prime minister and chancellor faced backbench discontent at monday s meeting of the parliamentary labour party over claims made in journalist robert peston s new book. mr blair told mps and peers: i know from everyone here in cabinet and government nothing is going to get in the way of a unified labour party with a unified position and winning the third term people desperately need. labour s paul flynn said the pair had had a scorching from mps. on tuesday deputy prime minister mr prescott told bbc news: they told us very clearly it was the troops telling the leaders: get in line. the new book claims mr prescott hosted a dinner in november 2003 where the prime minister told mr brown he would stand down before the next election because he had lost trust over the iraq war. mr blair then changed his mind in june 2004 after cabinet allies intervened and amid suspicion the chancellor was manoeuvring against him writes mr peston. in mr peston s book mr brown is alleged to have told the prime minister: there is nothing you could ever say to me now that i could ever believe.

lib dems demand new inquiry a judge should look into the david blunkett controversy as key questions remain unanswered the lib dems say. sir alan budd s inquiry linked the ex-home secretary to the speeding up of a visa claim by his ex-lover s nanny. but he could not say whether mr blunkett had treated the nanny as a special case or had used her as an example of immigration problems. lib dem spokesman mark oaten said the number of officials who had forgotten what happened was worrying. he told bbc news: i m extremely concerned that 20 individuals appear to have forgotten what happened or more suspiciously are not prepared to say what happened. that must be bad for government it must be bad for public confidence in the system. mr oaten said people would be mystified why sir alan s inquiry failed to uncover why processing of the visa application was speeded up. he said: there is a strong case for a judge-led judicial review of this because of course next time it happens it may not be about a nanny and their visa. it may be about something even more important than that. so we do need to understand what took place and who was involved. the tories criticised the lib dem stance saying mr oaten had initially said he accepted mr blunkett s word unless further evidence emerged. but lib dem officials say mr oaten was speaking when an inquiry was under way and was avoiding rushing to judgement.

teenagers to be allowed to be mps teenagers will be able to become mps under plans unveiled by ministers. in a written statement constitutional affairs minister christopher leslie said the current minimum age of 21 for an mp would be reduced to 18. the proposals follow a recommendation last year by elections watchdog the electoral commission. the government intends to legislate when parliamentary time allows to lower the age said mr leslie who was elected in 1997 at the age of 24. even if the move does go ahead it is unlikely it will be in place before the next general election widely predicted for may. the announcement from mr leslie - who was elected in 1997 in a formerly safe tory seat - prompted calls for a lowering of the voting age to 16. the votes at 16 alliance said it was a good thing to engage people by lowering the candidacy age but argued lowering the voting age would be much more effective. candidacy affects only politicians. the voting age affects millions of younger people said spokesman alex folkes. we would hope that the government will table a bill that is broad enough to allow for amendments to be brought to test support for a reduction in the voting age. currently candidates in both local and national votes must be 21 while the voting age is 18. that is because the age of majority was reduced to 18 in 1969 but laws dating from 1695 which determine the current voting age stayed in place. irish republican bernadette devlin was one of just a handful of 21-year-olds elected to parliament in the 20th century winning a seat in 1969. but the youngest is understood to have been tory edward turnour who won the 1904 horsham by-election aged 21 and 144 days and served in parliament for 47 continuous years. last april s report by the electoral commission said there was no strong argument for leaving the age for standing for election at 21. the commission found the most common approach around the world is for the voting age to be the same as the candidacy age.

more movies head to sony s psp movies open water and saw are among those to be made available for sony s psp games console. film studio lions gate entertainment has announced an initial list of 12 movies that will be on the umd format used by the handheld. the typical buyer of the machine [is] the core demographic to whom our films generally appeal said steve beeks president of lions gate. already available in japan the psp is released in the us on 24 march. spider-man 2 on umd will be given to the first million customers in the us. the punisher and house of the dead along with older titles such as total recall and rambo: first blood will be in the umd format with disks costing between $20 (£10.40) to $30 (£15.60) for new titles and $10 (£5.20) to $20 for older films. when we first saw the machine and started talking to sony we immediately decided it was going to be a winner both from the gaming perspective and from the perspective of people watching movies on the go mr beeks said. the disks which are smaller than dvds only work in sony s psp and can hold up to 1.8gb of data. we actually believe people who buy the umd would not have bought it on dvd he said. there are people who will want umd because of the portability. maybe they re already taking the games with them out of the house and they re bigger gamers than they are movie watchers. four movies have already been announced for psp. they are: xxx hellboy resident evil: apocalypse and once upon a time in mexico.

economy strong in election year uk businesses are set to prosper during the next few months - but this could trigger more interest rate rises according to a report. optimism is at its highest since 1997 and business will reap the benefits of a continuing rise in public spending say researchers at bdo stoy hayward. the bank of england is expected to keep rates on hold this week - but they could go up later in the year. rates are likely to rise after the anticipated general election in may. the bdo optimism index - a leading indicator of gdp growth two quarters ahead edged up in january to 102.5 from 102.2 in october. the rise is due in part to an increase in public spending and increased merger and acquisition activity. the only thing blighting business optimism this year will be uncertainties associated with the general election bdo said. its bdo s output index - which predicts gdp movements a quarter in advance - remained at 100.8 for january implying gdp growth at 2.9% in the second quarter of 2005. however the output index is being held back by recent interest rate rises sterling s strength against the dollar and high oil prices the group noted. its inflation index which has risen continuously over the last 8 months climbed to 110.0 in january from 108.0 in october last year. the uk is looking strong going into the general election but businesses need to prepare themselves for a jolt ahead as the bank of england reacts to growth and inflationary pressures said peter hemington partner at bdo stoy hayward. growth will probably slow by the end of 2005 and it is likely that we will see higher interest rates or a sharp drop in demand for products and services.

eu aiming to fuel development aid european union finance ministers meet on thursday to discuss proposals including a tax on jet fuel to boost development aid for poorer nations. the policy makers are to ask for a report into how more development money can be raised the eu said. the world s richest countries have said they want to increase the amount of aid they give to 0.7% of their annual gross national income by 2015. airlines have reacted strongly against the proposed fuel levy. profits have been under pressure in the airline industry with low-cost firms driving down prices and demand dipping after the 11 september terrorist attacks and the outbreak of the killer sars virus. things have picked up but some european and us companies are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. at present the fuel used by airlines enjoys either a very low tax rate or is untaxed in eu member states. of course we applaud humanitarian initiatives but why target the airlines said ulrich schulte-strathaus secretary general of the association of european airlines. our industry is in the midst of a fundamental crisis...only to be once again confronted with a measure designed to increase our costs he continued. the eu sought to allay the airlines fears stressing that thursday s meeting was only a first step and that other proposals were also under consideration. it added that any plan to levy taxes on jet fuel should not hinder the competitiveness of the airlines and that they themselves will not be solely funding development . any tax would only be implemented after full consultation with the airlines the eu said. there is thought to be widespread support for the plan - tabled by france and germany following the recent g7 meeting of the world s richest nations - from eu ministers. the issue of poverty in africa and south asia has forced itself to the top of the politicial agenda with politicians and campaigners calling for more to be done. at their meeting in london g7 finance ministers backed plans to write off up to 100% of the debts of some of the world s poorest countries.

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

dj double act revamp chart show dj duo jk and joel are taking over bbc radio 1 s flagship chart show on sunday adding showbiz news celebrity interviews and between-song banter. they hope to boost ratings for the long-running show which has been overtaken in popularity by independent radio s hit 40 uk rundown. radio 1 s chart show is an institution and remains the station s single most popular show says jk also known as jason king. for years people have been tuning in at four o clock with their tape recorders ready to record their favourite tunes. not that i ever did that. but things have moved on a lot now so it was time for a change. that change involved ejecting previous host wes butters and relocating king and dj partner joel ross from their weekend afternoon radio 1 slot. the pair have worked together for a decade - meeting on viking radio in hull before moving to manchester station key 103 and winning two sony radio awards. they also presented gadget series playboyz and car show motor maniacs for cable tv channel granada men and motors and pure soap on bbc three. on the revamped chart show their cheeky laddish banter will punctuate star interviews and competitions film and dvd charts plus a look at future single releases in addition to the singles chart itself. the chart rundown is no longer the only point of the programme says ross. the show used to be the only way to discover who was in the top 40. now you can just click on the internet to find that out so the show has plenty of extra items too. the show s reduced reliance upon the top 40 also reflects the fact that music fans are now more likely to download songs in digital format rather than buy them on compact disc vinyl or cassette. i personally buy downloads rather than cd singles says 27-year-old ross. even my grandma can download songs now. jk is still struggling with the technology though. but it s premature for people to say that the singles chart is dead ross adds. while sales of singles on traditional formats are down interest in songs has been revived by download sales which will be incorporated into our main chart rundown from april. music fans still want to know what is the most popular song of the week. ross will be plumping for chart success from rapper verbalicious and the stereophonics on sunday while king is more of an r&b and dance music fan. so listeners will get the advantage of both our music tastes says king 30 who describes outgoing host butters as an extremely professional and competent broadcaster . the advantage joel and i have is that we re a double act with a rapport between us that makes the show much more interactive king says. wes has a great broadcasting career ahead of him. and if not i could always use a cleaner he jokes. ross says the pair have done their best to ignore the weight of expectation placed upon the revamped show. other people can worry about that we are going to continue doing what we do well he says. at the end of the day this is a radio show that is meant to be entertaining. nobody died.

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

blair defends terror law changes the prime minister has defended measures to allow house arrest without trial saying several hundred people in the uk are plotting terror attacks. the government is facing opposition from tory and lib dem mps and its own backbenchers as it prepares for the final commons debate on the changes. but tony blair said there could be no concession on the basic principle . mr blair told the bbc the control orders would only be used in the most limited circumstances. critics in the opposition and civil rights activists are worried that the home secretary will have the power to issue the detention orders. but the government has so far resisted pressure for judges to be responsible for making the orders instead saying judges will be able to quash them. an explanation is being sent by home secretary charles clarke to all mps and peers ahead of the final debate in the house of commons. on sunday conservative shadow home secretary david davis claimed judges would get the powers to issue detention orders. and liberal democrat leader charles kennedy said some concessions had already been offered by the government during last-minute negotiations. some 32 labour mps voted against the legislation last week. barbara follett whose first husband was killed while under house arrest in south africa during the apartheid era confirmed she would vote against the government. but the government is continuing to insist that control orders must be issued by the home secretary. mr blair told bbc radio 4 s woman s hour: we are being advised by the police and the security services... what they say is you have got to give us powers in between mere surveillance of these people - there are several hundred of them in this country who we believe are engaged in plotting or trying to commit terrorist acts - you have got to give us power in between just surveying them and being able being sure enough of the proof to prosecute them beyond reasonable doubt. and these will be restrictions on their liberty that we will use only in the most limited circumstances. a yougov poll in the daily telegraph suggested 75% of respondents thought action was sometimes necessary against people who had not committed an offence but who had been found by intelligence services to be planning a terrorist attack. but tory leader michael howard told bbc news that the government was again making a mistake in rushing anti-terrorism legislation. i very much hope it would be possible to reach a compromise on this. he said after meeting tony blair he had been left with the impression that he really wasn t interested in any of the various proposals we have put forward . mr clarke wants house arrest and other powers to replace indefinite jail for terror suspects - something the law lords have ruled against on the basis that it breaches human rights. bbc political correspondent vicky young said some form of concession on the measures was likely to be needed to get the legislation through the house of lords where labour does not have a majority and would require support from other parties. shami chakrabarti director of civil liberties pressure group liberty said who was able to issue the control orders was not the main issue. she said the legislation was a travesty and a perversion of justice and would remain unpalatable even if a judge was involved early in the process.

peer-to-peer nets here to stay peer-to-peer (p2p) networks are here to stay and are on the verge of being exploited by commercial media firms says a panel of industry experts. once several high-profile legal cases against file-sharers are resolved this year firms will be very keen to try and make money from p2p technology. the expert panel probed the future of p2p at the consumer electronics show in las vegas earlier in january. the first convictions for p2p piracy were handed out in the us in january. william trowbridge and michael chicoine pleaded guilty to charges that they infringed copyright by illegally sharing music movies and software. since the first successful file-sharing network napster was forced to close down the entertainment industry has been nervous and critical of p2p technology blaming it for falling sales and piracy. but that is going to change very soon according to the panel. the music and film industries have started some big legal cases against owners of legitimate p2p networks - which are not illegal in themselves - and of individuals accused of distributing pirated content over networks. but they have slowly realised that p2p is a good way to distribute content said travis kalanick founder and chairman of p2p network red swoosh and soon they are all going to want a slice of it. they are just waiting to come up with business models that work for them which includes digital rights management and copy-protection standards. but until the legal actions are resolved experimentation with p2p cannot not happen said michael weiss president of streamcast networks. remembering the furore around vcrs when they first came out mr weiss said: old media always tries to stop new media. when they can t stop it they try to control it. then they figure out how to make money and they always make a lot of money. once the courts decided that the vcr in itself was not an illegal technology the film studios turned it into an extremely lucrative business. in august 2004 the san francisco-based us court of appeals ruled in favour of grokster and streamcast two file-sharing networks. the court said they were essentially in the same position that sony was in the 1980s vcr battle and said that the networks themselves could not be deemed as illegal. p2p networks usually do not rely on dedicated servers for the transfer of files. instead it uses direct connections between computers - or clients. there are now many different types of p2p systems than work in different ways. p2p nets can be used to share any kind of file like photos free software licensed music and any other digital content. the bbc has already decided to embrace the technology. it aims to offer most of its own programmes for download this year and it will use p2p technology to distribute them. the files would be locked seven days after a programme aired making rights management easier to control. but the technology is still demonised and misunderstood by many. the global entertainment industry says more than 2.6 billion copyrighted music files are downloaded every month and about half a million films are downloaded a day. legal music download services like apple itunes napster have rushed into the music marketplace to try and lure file-sharers away from free content. sales of legally-downloaded songs grew tenfold in 2004 with 200 million tracks bought online in the us and europe in 12 months the ifpi reported this week. but such download services are very different from p2p networks not least because of the financial aspect. there are several money-spinning models that could turn p2p into a golden egg for commercial entertainment companies. paid-for-pass-along in which firms receive money each time a file is shared along with various drm solutions and advertiser-based options are all being considered. we see there are going to be different models for commoditising p2p said marc morgenstern vice president of anti-piracy firm overpeer. consumers are hungry for it and we will discover new models together agreed mr morgenstern. but many net users will continue to ignore the entertainment industry s potential controlling grip on content and p2p technology by continuing to use it for their own creations. unsigned bands for example use p2p networks to distribute their music effectively which also draws the attention of record companies looking for new artists to sign. increasingly what you are seeing on p2p is consumer-created content said derek broes from microsoft. they will probably pay an increasing role in helping p2p spread he said. looking into p2p s future file sharing is just the beginning for p2p networks as far as mr broes is concerned. once some of these issues are resolved you are going to see aggressive movement to protect content but also in ways that are unimaginable now he said. file-sharing is the tip of the iceberg.

child access law shake-up planned parents who refuse to allow former partners contact with their children could be electronically tagged under plans being considered by ministers. curfews and community service orders were other options which could be used if court orders to allow parental access were defied lord falconer said. the constitutional affairs secretary outlined some of the plans on tuesday. he denied fathers activists had forced the changes telling the bbc there is a recognition that something is wrong . between 15 000 and 20 000 couples go to court to resolve access disputes each year although in nine out of 10 separations there is no court intervention. lord falconer told bbc radio 4 s today programme he hoped voluntary mediation could help solve disputes before they reached court. but he opposed compulsory mediation saying that it would lead to many people taking part with the wrong attitude. other plans include: - parenting plans to give advice on access arrangements based on real-life examples that have worked in the past - extending in-court conciliation - more informal hearings before contested court cases - better access to legal emotional and practical advice by telephone and internet - legal aid changes to give incentives for early resolution of disputes. judges can already jail parents who breach contact orders but that was a nuclear option which was rarely used as it was not seen as being in the child s interests a spokesman said. the aim of the new legislation was to provide a medium range of penalties such as fines community service orders compulsory anger management or parenting classes or curfews. failure to comply with these measures could result in offenders being electronically tagged. on the possibility of tagging uncooperative parents lord falconer said: tagging may be going too far but let s have a debate about that. full details of the new powers will not be revealed until a bill is published in the next two weeks a spokesman said. the government s proposals have met with disapproval from fathers rights groups. john ison from the controversial group fathers 4 justice said: it is very disappointing. what we have got is a cynical case of recycling existing legislation. jim parton from families need fathers said the new proposals lacked compulsion . we would like to see couples develop a plan and then have it as a source of a court order - then you know where you stand you know what the minimum access is. otherwise you see people make agreements which then fall apart. mr parton said he had been told by children s minister margaret hodge there was not enough time to pass the bill through parliament before the general election which is likely to take place in may. the conservatives have called for an equal split between parents on access to be made law. theresa may shadow secretary for the family told bbc radio 4 s today programme that the government s plans were inadequate and were papering over the cracks of the current system . she said a conservative government would bring a radical reform of the family courts as well as enforcing a legal presumption of co-parenting and compulsory mediation . we want to make courts the last resort rather than the first resort she added. the government says children cannot simply be divided up like property when a marriage collapses. the liberal democrats have argued for flexibility in deciding access rules rather than having rigid targets .

police probe bnp mosque leaflet police are investigating a british national party leaflet posted to homes in south wales opposing plans for a new mosque. anti-racism campaigners in swansea have handed copies to south wales police. swansea s muslim community is raising money to open a new mosque and community centre in the former st andrews united reform church. the building on george street has been derelict since the 1980s. taha idris director of the swansea bay race equality council said his organisation contacted police after receiving complaints from the public. i m quite shocked to see this sort of leaflet by the bnp in swansea he said. the bnp has tried in the past to get into swansea and this is another example of them trying again. i am in no doubt that the bnp are not needed and not wanted here. a south wales police spokeswoman confirmed that they were looking at the contents of the leaflet. according to the bnp s website they have been posted to homes in the castle ward. the bnp website carries a photograph of party leader nick griffin - who lives near welshpool mid wales - delivering the leaflet. the bnp has denied it is trying to stir up hatred of any race or religion but argues that they should be able to debate this without fear of arrest. swansea unite against fascism (uaf) is meeting this week to plan a campaign. following the death earlier this year of kalan kawa karim an iraqi kurd living in swansea it organised an anti-racism march in the city that was supported by more than 1 000 people. it is planning its own mail shot campaign and may launch a petition in support of the plans for the mosque. andy richards of swansea uaf said the leaflet was exactly what he had come to expect from the bnp. the people of swansea will not put up with this. swansea s muslim community bought the former church just across the road from the existing mosque on st helen s road in the late 1990s. mr idris said the community was now raising money to renovate the building. it is a landmark building in swansea and would otherwise just crumble he said. it is the ideal opportunity for the building to be restored and used in the proper manner. it will be a muslim community centre. it s a holistic place used for education weddings deaths and births. he said space was limited in the current mosque and on some occasions muslims had to travel to llanelli for cultural events.

man city 0-2 man utd manchester united reduced chelsea s premiership lead to nine points after a scrappy victory over manchester city. wayne rooney met gary neville s cross to the near post with a low shot which went in via a deflection off richard dunne to put united ahead. seven minutes later the unfortunate dunne hooked a volley over david james head and into his own net. steve mcmanaman wasted city s best chance when he shot wide from three yards in the first half. in the opening 45 minutes united had looked unlikely to earn the win they needed to maintain any chance of catching chelsea in the title race. their approach play was more laboured than patient and they managed to fashion just one chance - a paul scholes header over the bar. and city seemed to be content to sit back and try and hit their rivals on the break as the game settled into a tepid pattern. only shaun wright-phillips appeared capable of interrupting the monotony looking lively down the right and causing gabriel heinze problems. wes brown also found wright-phillips to be a difficult opponent when the tricky winger embarrassed him near the touchline. wright-phillips sublime skill and pace took him past brown and he delivered a pin-point centre to the feet of mcmanaman. but the former liverpool player demonstrated why he has never scored against united by side-footing the easy chance wide. john o shea was forced off after an earlier clash with sylvain distin and cristiano ronaldo came on to replace him. he immediately caused ben thatcher some discomfort and looked set to inject some much-needed pace into the united attack. rooney was being well marshalled by dunne - but that was all about to change. after the break united poured forward and there was a renewed urgency about their play. and when neville delivered a cross in a carbon copy of city s best first-half chance rooney showed mcmanaman how to do it - even if he needed the help of dunne s leg. worse was to come for dunne who had been having a fine match. on 75 minutes he scored a horrible own goal when attempting to volley clear rooney s cross and united seemed home and dry. however city did fight back and fowler missed another great chance from close range. and united keeper roy carroll saved well from kiki musampa. but united could have a had a third late on when substitute ryan giggs hit the post. - manchester city boss kevin keegan: we had a great chance to take the lead and the first goal was always going to be crucial. we started off with a good tempo but then we allowed them to dictate the pace a bit too much. but we still had four good chances two after we d gone 2-0 down the one mcmanaman missed was very similar to the one wayne rooney scored from. - manchester united boss sir alex ferguson: it wasn t our best performance of the last three months but i think we re deserved winners. at times especially in the first half we didn t play with enough speed. but with (cristiano) ronaldo and (ryan) giggs on the speed improved. derby games can be like that they can be scrappy dull horrible and it was maybe like that. man city: james mills (bradley wright-phillips 83) dunne distin thatcher shaun wright-phillips barton (macken 68) sibierski mcmanaman musampa fowler. subs not used: weaver onuoha flood. booked: fowler sibierski. man utd: carroll gary neville ferdinand brown heinze o shea (ronaldo 33) keane fortune fletcher (giggs 64) rooney scholes (phil neville 84). subs not used: howard bellion. booked: rooney scholes keane. goals: rooney 68 dunne 75 og. att: 47 111 ref: s bennett (kent).

mccririck out of big brother show racing pundit john mccririck has become the latest contestant to be evicted from celebrity big brother. he was nominated to leave the channel 4 show by fellow housemates alongside happy mondays dancer bez. at one time bez was among the most popular contestants but he has since become withdrawn and argumentative. mccririck was ordered to leave the house on monday following jackie stallone the actor sylvester s mother who was first to be evicted. bez reacted badly to the news that he had been nominated by five of his fellow housemates whilst john received four votes against him. sylvester stallone s ex-wife brigitte nielsen nominated both john and bez. she said: bez is a difficult human being. there s something wrong with him. even though he s making an effort he s not very happy in here. former holby city actor jeremy edwards said he had nominated bez after he became agitated on friday night and talked about escaping over the wall to go clubbing. he said bez was being loopy and stressed . according to bookmaker ladbrokes john mccririck was 1/3 favourite to be evicted on monday while bez was at 9/4 . mccririck faced the public vote on friday and received 67% of the vote to keep him in the house whilst jackie stallone was evicted.

apple ipod family expands market apple has expanded its ipod family with the release of its next generation of the digital music players. its latest challenges to the growing digital music gadget market include an ipod mini model which can hold 6gb compared to a previous 4gb. the company which hopes to keep its dominant place in the digital music market also said the gold coloured version of the mini would be dropped. a 30gb version has also been added to the ipod photo family. the latest models have a longer battery life and their prices have been cut by an average of £40. the original ipod took an early lead in the digital music player market thanks to its large storage capacity and simple design. during 2004 about 25 million portable players were sold 10 million of which were apple ipods. but analysts agree that the success is also down to its integration with the itunes online store which has given the company a 70% share of the legal download music market. mike mcguire a research director at analyst gartner told the bbc news website that apple had done a good job in sealing off the market from competition so far. they have created a very seamless package which i think is the idea of the product - the design function and the software are very impressive he said. he added that the threat from others was always present however. creative other microsoft-partnered devices real sony and so on are ratcheting up the marketing message and advertising he said. creative was very upbeat about how many of its creative zen players it had shipped by the end of last year he said. its second-generation models like the creative zen micro photo is due out in the summer. it will have 5gb of memory on board. digital music players are now the gadget of choice among young americans according to recent research by the pew internet and american life project. one in 10 us adults - 22 million people - now owns a digital music player of some sort. sales of legally downloaded songs also rose more than tenfold in 2004 according to the record industry with 200 million tracks bought online in the us and europe in 12 months. the ifpi industry body said that the popularity of portable music players was behind the growth. analysts say that the ease of use and growth of music services available on the net will continue to drive the trend towards portable music players. people are also starting to use them in novel ways. some are combining automatic syncing functions many of them have with other net functions to automatically distribute diy radio shows called podcasts. but 2005 will also see more competition from mobile phone operators who are keen to offer streaming services on much more powerful and sophisticated handsets. according to mr mcguire research suggests that people like the idea of building up huge libraries of music which they can do with high-capacity storage devices like ipods and creative zens. mobiles do not yet have this capacity though and there are issues about the ease of portability of mobile music. mr mcguire said apple was ensuring it kept a foot in the mobile music door with its recent deal with motorola to produce a version of itunes for motorola phones.

moreno debut makes oscar mark catalina sandino moreno has joined a rare group of actresses who have been nominated for an oscar for starring in a foreign language film. the colombian-born actress was the final hope for director joshua marston who scoured the us and colombia for a lead for maria full of grace. the film sees the 23-year-old play a teenage drug mule who smuggles heroin by swallowing pellets in condoms. plaudits have been raining down on her for her gritty performance making it all the more surprising that this is her first film. her previous acting experience was in amateur productions in her home city of bogota at the ruben di pietro theatre academy. she has already received a nomination for the independent spirit awards leading actress category but these rarely overlap with academy awards instead recognising quirkier low-budget films. and at the 2004 berlin film festival the jury could not choose between her and charlize theron s oscar winning performance in monster so gave them a tied award. sandino moreno is now being regarded as one of the most promising actresses around at the moment. but she is taking her time committing to her next project hoping to land a strong spanish script and would love to be able to work with directors pedro almodovar or alejandro amenabar.

strong quarterly growth for nike nike has reported its best second-quarter earnings helped by strong demand for its athletic shoes and converse sneakers. the global sports giant said it posted a profit of $261.9m (£135.6m) for the three months to 30 november up from $179.1m in the same period last year. revenues increased 11% to $3.1bn from $2.8bn for the same period in 2003. nike whose products are endorsed by tiger woods among other sports stars said demand continues to grow . the results came after a strong first quarter of the year for the firm based in beaverton oregon. philip knight chairman and chief executive said: nike s second-quarter revenues and earnings per share reached all-time high levels as a result of solid performance across our global portfolio. our businesses in the united states and emerging markets such as china russia and turkey combined with favourable european exchange rates helped drive much of this growth. he added: with the first half of our fiscal year in the books we remain confident that our business strategy and consistent execution will allow us to deliver on our goals of healthy profitable growth. the firm reported worldwide futures orders for athletic footwear and gear scheduled for delivery from december 2004 to april 2005 of $4.9bn. that is 9.1% higher than such orders reported for the same period last year.

s korean credit card firm rescued south korea s largest credit card firm has averted liquidation following a one trillion won ($960m; £499m) bail-out. lg card had been threatened with collapse because of its huge debts but the firm s creditors and its former parent have stepped in to rescue it. a consortium of creditors and lg group a family owned conglomerate have each put up $480m to stabilise the firm. lg card has seven million customers and its collapse would have sent shockwaves through the country s economy. the firm s creditors - which own 99% of lg card - have been trying to agree a deal to secure its future for several weeks. they took control of the company in january when it avoided bankruptcy only through a $4.5bn bail-out. they had threatened to delist the company a move which would have triggered massive debt redemptions and forced the company into bankruptcy unless agreement was reached on its future funding. lg card will not need any more financial aid after this laah chong-gyu executive director of korea development bank - one of the firm s creditors - said. the agreement will see some 12 trillion won of debt converted into equity. the purpose of the capital injection is to avoid delisting and the goal will be met david kim an analyst at sejong securities told reuters. south korea s consumer credit market has been slowly recovering from a crisis in 2002 when a credit bubble burst and millions of consumers fell behind on their debt repayments. lg card returned to profit in september but needed further capital to avoid being thrown off the market. south korea s stock exchange can delist any firm if its debt exceeds its assets two years running.

casual gaming to take off games aimed at casual players are set to be even bigger in 2005 according to industry experts. easy-to-play titles that do not require too much time and that are playable online or downloadable to mobile devices will see real growth in the coming year. the trend shows that gaming is not just about big-hitting games console titles which appeal more to hardcore gamers said a panel of experts. they were speaking before the annual consumer electronics show in las vegas which showcases the latest trends in gadgets and technologies for 2005. the panel also insisted that casual gamers were not just women a common misconception which pervades current thinking about gamer demographics. casual games like poker pool bridge bingo and puzzle-based titles which can be played online or downloaded onto mobile devices were gender neutral and different genres attracted different players. greg mills program director at aol said its figures suggested that sports-based games attracted 90% of 18 to 24-year-old males while puzzle games were played by 80% of females. games like bridge tended to attract the over-50 demographic of gamers. but hardcore gamers who are more attracted to blockbuster gamers which usually require hi-spec pcs like half-life 2 or halo 2 on xbox also liked to have a different type of gaming experience. when hardcore gamers are not playing halo they are playing poker and pool based on our research said geoff graber director of yahoo games which attracts about 12 million gamers a month. with the growth of powerful pc technology and ownership broadband take-up portable players and mobile devices as well as interactive tv casual gaming is shaping up to be big business in 2005 according to the panel. the focus for the coming year should be about attracting third-party developers into the field to offer more innovative and multiplayer titles they agreed. we are at a time where we are on the verge of something much bigger said mr graber. casual games will get into their stride in 2005 will be really big in 2006 and will be about community. with more people finding more to do with their gadgets and high-speed connections casual games would start to open up the world of gaming as a form of mass-market entertainment to more people. key to these types of titles is the chance they give people who may not see themselves as gamers to dip in and out of games when they liked. portal sites which offer casual games like aol yahoo and realarcade as well as other games-on-demand services allow people to build up buddy lists so they can return and play against the same people. this aspect of community is crucial for gamers who just want to have quick access to free or cheap games without committing long periods of time immersed in £30 to £40 console or pc titles said the panel. about 120 000 people are expected to attend the ces trade show which stretches over more than 1.5 million square feet and which officially runs from 6 to 9 january. the main theme is how new devices are getting better at talking to each other allowing people to enjoy digital content like audio video and images when they want and where they want.

warning over tsunami aid website net users are being told to avoid a scam website that claims to collect cash on behalf of tsunami victims. the site looks plausible because it uses an old version of the official disasters emergency committee webpage. however dec has no connection with the fake site and says it has contacted the police about it. the site is just the latest in a long list of scams that try to cash in on the goodwill generated by the tsunami disaster. the link to the website is contained in a spam e-mail that is currently circulating. the message s subject line reads urgent tsunami earthquake appeal and its text bears all the poor grammar and bad spelling that characterises many other phishing attempts. the web address of the fake site is decuk.org which could be close enough to the official www.dec.org.uk address to confuse some people keen to donate. patricia sanders spokeswoman for the disaster emergency committee said it was aware of the site and had contacted the computer crime unit at scotland yard to help get it shut down. she said the spam e-mails directing people to the site started circulating two days ago shortly after the domain name of the site was registered. it is thought that the fake site is being run from romania. ms sanders said dec had contacted us net registrars who handle domain ownership and the net hosting firm that is keeping the site on the web. dec was going to push for all cash donated via the site to be handed over to the official organisation. bt and dec s hosting company were also making efforts to get the site shut down she said. ms sanders said sending out spam e-mail to solicit donations was not dec s style and that it would never canvass support in this way. she said that dec hoped to get the fake site shut down as soon as possible. all attempts by the bbc news website to contact the people behind the site have failed. none of the e-mail addresses supplied on the site work and the real owner of the domain is obscured in publicly available net records. this is not the first attempt to cash in on the outpouring of goodwill that has accompanied appeals for tsunami aid. one e-mail sent out in early january came from someone who claimed that he had lost his parents in the disaster and was asking for help moving an inheritance from a bank account in the netherlands. the con was very similar to the familiar nigerian forward fee fraud e-mails that milk money out of people by promising them a cut of a much larger cash pile. other scam e-mails included a link to a website that supposedly let people donate money but instead loaded spyware on their computers that grabbed confidential information. in a monthly report anti-virus firm sophos said that two e-mail messages about the tsunami made it to the top 10 hoax list during january. another tsunami-related e-mail is also circulating that carries the zar worm which tries to spread via the familiar route of microsoft s outlook e-mail program. anyone opening the attachment of the mail will have their contact list plundered by the worm keen to find new addresses to send itself to.