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blair backs pre-election budget tony blair has backed chancellor gordon brown s pre-budget report amid opposition claims he was too bullish about the state of the uk economy. in a speech in edinburgh the prime minister said thursday s report reinforced stability and opportunity. and that would be central to labour s next election campaign planning for which was already well advanced. mr brown earlier denied his economic forecasts were too optimistic - but refused to rule out future tax rises. he told bbc radio 4 s today programme: no politician should make the mistake that john major and his colleagues made in 1992 of saying no matter what the circumstances are they can make all sorts of guarantees on every individual thing. that is not what politicians should do it would not be responsible to do. mr brown insisted his spending plans were affordable and he could afford to be optimistic because britain was now a stable low-inflation economy and house prices were now stabilising. mr blair praised his chancellor for his role in creating economic stability which he said was the cornerstone of labour s programme. in a speech at edinburgh s napier university he said labour would publish over the next few months a rich agenda for future policy in any possible third term . in every area of work there is a detailed plan for the future much clearer than those in 1997 or 2001. all of it fits together around common themes of opportunity security and stability for all mr blair said. in his pre-budget report mr brown surprised some city experts by forecasting uk growth at between 3% and 3.5% for next year. many believe the figure is more likely to be under 3% - and fear tax rises or spending cuts saying tax receipts have been overestimated. carl emmerson from the institute for fiscal studies told bbc news: he thinks everything will come out in the wash and it will in fact be ok. we re not so sure. david page of investec securities said: his forecast that he will meet the golden rule with a margin of £8bn is way too optimistic. it s going to take a significant turnaround in the economy to meet these targets. conservative shadow chancellor oliver letwin said: i can t find a single economic forecaster from the imf to the institute of fiscal studies who believes anything other than the chancellor has got a black hole in his finances. in order to deal with that he will have to raise taxes after the next general election. mr letwin accused the chancellor of using fancy statistics to hide public service failures. vincent cable for the liberal democrats called on mr brown to open up the government s books to the national audit office to see if he had met his golden rule . it is very clear that there are some serious loose ends in government public spending mr cable told mps.
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nuclear body seeks new tech the computer systems used to monitor the world s nuclear power installations are so outdated that they are hampering the work of inspectors. a spokesman for the international atomic energy agency (iaea) said its current technology could allow key information to be overlooked as it was more than 20 years old. such systems are the only method of tracking nuclear material worldwide. the agency has appealed for more funds to update its hardware and software. a major overhaul of the system is needed to allow inspectors immediate secure online access to information said project manager livio costantini. iaea inspectors make around 3 000 visits a year to more than 900 nuclear facilities worldwide. they are there to verify official reports of activities in the plants to carry out environmental checks and also to look for any signs that nuclear material is being smuggled in or out of the facility. the computer system inspectors currently use for comparing data from earlier visits for instance was built in the 1970s and largely paper based. an iaea spokesman said this was extremely inefficient and makes searching for anomalies like searching for a needle in a haystack. the organisation is aiming to start a system upgrade in november aiming to provide inspectors in the field with secure online access to previous inspection data design blueprints of nuclear facilities even satellite images of the plant. where possible it hopes to link the system with national records of the import and export of nuclear materials. further analysis of these could help spot potential smuggling activities or illicit technology transfers between countries according to a spokesman. computer specialist at the iaea peter smith would like to be able to incorporate state of the art visualisation techniques more familiar to video games players into the inspector s toolkit. the commercials you now see have people are moving around in a virtual world he said. if we could have that on our laptops we could be walking through the plant seeing on the laptop how the plant should look. and if there s a door in the wall that is not on our laptop then we have a problem. the iaea estimates the total cost of the four-year project to upgrade its technology will be $40m. so far it has only received $11m from the us and the uk. failure to replace the hardware and software and to integrate fully all the information system components will carry large risks said an agency statement.
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japan economy slides to recession the japanese economy has officially gone back into recession for the fourth time in a decade. gross domestic product fell by 0.1% in the last three months of 2004. the fall reflects weak exports and a slowdown in consumer spending and follows similar falls in gdp in the two previous quarters. the tokyo stock market fell after the figures were announced but rose again on a widespread perception that the economy will recover later this year. on wednesday the government revised growth figures from earlier in 2004 which when taking into account performance in the most recent period effectively tips japan into recession. a previous estimate of 0.1% growth between july and september was downgraded to a 0.3% decline. a recession is commonly defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth although the japanese government takes other factors into account when judging the status of its economy. figures released by the government s cabinet office showed that gdp on an annualised basis fell 0.5% in the last three months of 2004. however politicians remain upbeat about prospects for an economic boost later in the year. the economy has some soft patches but if you look at the bigger picture it is in a recovery stage said economic and fiscal policy minister heizo takenaka. gross domestic product measures the overall value of goods and services produced in a country. the economy must be assessed comprehensively and we cannot look at gdp alone mr takenaka stressed. ministers pointed to the fact that consumer spending had been depressed by one-off factors such as the unseasonably mild winter. analysts said the figures were disappointing but argued that japan s largest companies had been recording healthy profits and capital spending was on the rise. japan s economy grew 2.6% overall last year - fuelled by a strong performance in the first few months - and is forecast to see growth of 2.1% in 2005. however the economy s fragile recovery remains dependent on an upturn in consumer spending a fall in the value of the yen and an improvement in global economies. the results came in at the lower end of expectations but we shouldn t be too pessimistic about the current state and the outlook for the economy said naoki iizuka senior economist at the dai-ichi life research institute. japan s economy has seen stretches of moderate growth over the past decade but has periodically slipped back into recession.
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radcliffe eyes hard line on drugs paula radcliffe has called for all athletes found guilty on drugs charges to be treated as criminals. the marathon world record holder believes more needs to be done to rid athletics of the suspicions and innuendoes which greet any fast time. doping in sport is a criminal offence and should be treated as such the 30-year-old told the sunday times. it not only cheats other athletes but also cheats promoters sponsors and the general public. radcliffe s comments come at a time when several american sports stars are under suspicion of steroid use. being caught in possession of a performance-enhancing drugs should carry a penalty she added. the current system does not detect many of the substances being abused by athletes. this means that often athletes do not know if they are competing on a level playing field if their hard work and sacrifice is being trumped by an easier scientific route. often when an athlete puts in a good performance they are subjected to suspicions and innuendoes instead of praise. having been on the receiving end of accusations like this i can testify as to how much this hurts.
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iraqi voters turn to economic issues beyond the desperate security situation in iraq lies an economy in tatters. a vicious cycle of unemployment poor social services and poverty has been made worse by a lack of investment. so there is much hope that an elected government will break the deadlock. first rule of law then the economy says radwan hadi deputy managing director of aberdeen-based oil and gas consultancy blackwatch petroleum services which entered iraq in 2003. mr hadi s view about what the new government s priorities should be is shared by many iraqis. the economy has become the second-most dominant issue for many political parties ahead of sunday s election according to bristol university political scientist anne alexander who is working on a project that looks at governance and security in post-war iraq. job creation ranks high both on election manifestos and on the iraqi people s wish list. nobody knows exactly how many iraqis are out of work but it is clear that the situation is dire. estimates of iraq s unemployment rate vary but we estimate it to be between 30-40% the washington-based independent think-tank the brookings institution says in its iraq index. but some progress has been made largely thanks to the country s oil revenues which have exceeded $22bn since june 2003. iraq s infrastructure is on the mend with notable improvements having been made in areas such as electricity supply irrigation telephone networks and the re-opening of hospitals. but serious problems remain and the growing divide between haves and have-nots is angering voters. one iraqi woman told ms alexander about her frustration as she watched tv adverts for private hospitals soon after having failed to track down basic medicines from baghdad s pharmacies. observes mr hadi: the economy at present marks a big divide; the rich get richer the poor get poorer. an indication of this can be seen in the world of finance where in contrast with the daily plight of ordinary people 19 private banks operate only one of which is run in accordance with islamic banking principles. hopes are high for the future of finance so foreign banks have been buying into the sector. national bank of kuwait has bought a majority stake in credit bank of iraq the jordanian investment bank export & finance bank has bought 49% of national bank of iraq. foreign firms also hope to cash in on the reconstruction effort. bechtel s efforts to rebuild schools and restore power have attracted controversy as well as boosting its bottom line while halliburton has enjoyed a wealth of military contracts. but the involvement of foreign firms in the health and banking sectors and beyond sits uneasily with many iraqis who are accustomed to the state taking responsibility for functions that are essential to making society work observes ms alexander. it is seen as a selling off of iraq s assets and bringing in multinationals at the expense of iraqi businesses and iraqi workers she says. consequently the transitional government has been forced to backtrack in recent months over its proposal to allow 100% foreign ownership of iraqi assets she explains. in the west it is easy to forget that the otherwise brutal baathist regime used to look after the majority of iraq s citizens rather well in terms of job creation social security and healthcare. opinion polls suggest that people still want the state to take a leading role in providing these things ms alexander says. yet in some areas of the economy investment from abroad is still warmly welcomed insists mr hadi an iraqi who left the country three decades ago. i think the private sector will evolve incredibly fast mr hadi says. iraq s vast natural resources can support any magnitude of economic growth. many foreign companies say they are keen to get in on the act yet few are actually entering the country in any meaningful way. but there are exceptions. mr hadi s blackwatch is just one of many small operators preparing for a much bigger future. blackwatch s baghdad-based affiliate falcon group has dozens of people working for it across the country in kirkuk and baghdad and its engineers and geo-scientists work with the iraqi oil ministry to hammer out technology transfer issues mr hadi points out. these guys are trying to work. the iraqi business people will do business at all times. life goes on in iraq the people take responsibility they want to live normal lives.
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ultimate game award for doom 3 sci-fi shooter doom 3 has blasted away the competition at a major games ceremony the golden joystick awards. it was the only title to win twice winning ultimate game of the year and best pc game at the awards presented by little britain star matt lucas. the much-anticipated sci-fi horror doom 3 shot straight to the top of the uk games charts on its release in august. other winners included grand theft auto: san andreas which took the most wanted for christmas prize. only released last week it was closely followed by halo 2 and half-life 2 which are expected to be big hits when they are unleashed later this month. but they missed out on the prize for the most wanted game of 2005 which went to the nintendo title the legend of zelda. the original doom released in 1994 heralded a new era in computer games and introduced 3d graphics. it helped to establish the concept of the first-person shooter. doom 3 was developed over four years and is thought to have cost around $15m (£8.3m). the top honour for the best online game of the year went to battlefield vietnam. the chronicles of riddick: escape from butcher bay was handed the unsung hero game of 2004. its release was somewhat eclipsed by doom 3 which was released on the same week. it was however very well received by gamers and was praised for its storyline which differed from the film released around the same time. electronic arts was named top publisher of the year taking the crown from nintendo which won in 2003. the annual awards are voted for by more than 200 000 readers of computer and video games magazines. games awards like this have grown in importance. over the last six years the uk market for games grew by 100% and was worth a record £1 152m in 2003 according to a recent report by analysts screen digest.
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tory 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.
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budget to set scene for election gordon brown will seek to put the economy at the centre of labour s bid for a third term in power when he delivers his ninth budget at 1230 gmt. he is expected to stress the importance of continued economic stability with low unemployment and interest rates. the chancellor is expected to freeze petrol duty and raise the stamp duty threshold from £60 000. but the conservatives and lib dems insist voters face higher taxes and more means-testing under labour. treasury officials have said there will not be a pre-election giveaway but mr brown is thought to have about £2bn to spare. - increase in the stamp duty threshold from £60 000 - a freeze on petrol duty - an extension of tax credit scheme for poorer families - possible help for pensioners the stamp duty threshold rise is intended to help first time buyers - a likely theme of all three of the main parties general election manifestos. ten years ago buyers had a much greater chance of avoiding stamp duty with close to half a million properties in england and wales alone selling for less than £60 000. since then average uk property prices have more than doubled while the starting threshold for stamp duty has not increased. tax credits as a result the number of properties incurring stamp duty has rocketed as has the government s tax take. the liberal democrats unveiled their own proposals to raise the stamp duty threshold to £150 000 in february. the tories are also thought likely to propose increased thresholds with shadow chancellor oliver letwin branding stamp duty a classic labour stealth tax . the tories say whatever the chancellor gives away will be clawed back in higher taxes if labour is returned to power. shadow treasury chief secretary george osborne said: everyone who looks at the british economy at the moment says there has been a sharp deterioration in the public finances that there is a black hole he said. if labour is elected there will be a very substantial tax increase in the budget after the election of the order of around £10bn. but mr brown s former advisor ed balls now a parliamentary hopeful said an examination of tory plans for the economy showed there would be a £35bn difference in investment by the end of the next parliament between the two main parties. he added: i don t accept there is any need for any changes to the plans we have set out to meet our spending commitments. for the lib dems david laws said: the chancellor will no doubt tell us today how wonderfully the economy is doing he said. but a lot of that is built on an increase in personal and consumer debt over the last few years - that makes the economy quite vulnerable potentially if interest rates ever do have to go up in a significant way. snp leader alex salmond said his party would introduce a £2 000 grant for first time buyers reduce corporation tax and introduce a citizens pension free from means testing. plaid cymru s economics spokesman adam price said he wanted help to get people on the housing ladder and an increase in the minimum wage to £5.60 an hour.
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observers to monitor uk election ministers will invite international observers to check the forthcoming uk general election is fairly run. the move comes amid claims the poll could be marred by electoral fraud. a report by two mps committees called on thursday for urgent changes to the electoral registration system to combat vote rigging and boost turnout. but in a written response to labour mp gordon prentice the government said it would normally invite observers to any uk election. junior constitutional affairs minister christopher leslie said: i fully expect us to repeat our previous practice of doing so once the date for the next general election is announced. the government has looked at ways of boosting voter turnout which fell to 59% in the last general election in 2001. but trial all-postal ballots in four english regions last summer were hit by delays and some fraud allegations. liberal democrat peer lord greaves called last week for international observers at the general election - saying otherwise there could be months of court challenges on a scale not seen since the 19th century . thursday s report was drawn up by two committees scrutinising the work of the office of the deputy prime minister (odpm) and the department for constitutional affairs (dca). it said that with the growth of postal voting there was a strong case to tighten up fraud protection by requiring voters to register individually rather than by household. it also said about three million people eligible to vote are not registered to do so. figures for the 2001 general election suggest 29% of people aged between 18 and 24 and 19% of black voters were not on the electoral roll. young people in shared accommodation are thought to miss out because no one acts as head of the household to fill in the form. odpm committee chairman andrew bennett said individual voter registration as opposed to registration by household should be quickly introduced as it could dramatically reduce the chances of fraud . but his counterpart on the dca committee alan beith said it should be delayed until measures likely to increase registration have been put in place and proved effective. shadow constitutional affairs secretary oliver heald accused the government of dragging its feet over this badly needed measure . it is vital that we move ahead with the northern ireland system of individual electoral registration to safeguard the integrity of the britain s electoral system he said. the report said individual registration should be treated carefully as 12% of voters disappeared from the electoral roll in northern ireland when it was introduced in 2002. the report said the government should consider fines for unregistered voters but accepted many experts said it would be an expensive system that would be hard to enforce. it said incentives to register such as £20 council tax rebate were likely to be seen as gimmicks and risked undermining the integrity of the system mps said. instead they called for imaginative campaigns to boost interest.
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pete doherty misses bail deadline singer pete doherty will have to spend the weekend in jail because he could not come up with £150 000 bond money for his bail on time. the former libertines singer had been granted bail with curfew restrictions at highbury corner magistrates court on charges of robbery and blackmail. but his lawyer said the money could not be raised on time. mr doherty 25 was arrested following an alleged incident in a london hotel on wednesday evening. musician alan wass 23 also of north london appeared in court accused of the same offences. magistrates imposed a range of bail conditions on mr doherty including a curfew between 2200 and 0700 except when he attends a drug rehabilitation centre. he was told he would not be able to leave his home without being accompanied by a security firm. he must also surrender his passport and report daily to a local police station. mr wass was also given a curfew and told to surrender his passport. mr doherty left the libertines at the end of june 2004 but continued performing with his band babyshambles. the singer who has been linked to supermodel kate moss was arrested after police were called to the islington hotel in response to claims that a man had been assaulted. a man in his 30s was later taken to university college hospital london with facial injuries before being discharged. a lawyer representing mr doherty and mr wass said outside court the pair strenuously denied the charges.
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lib dems to target stamp duty the liberal democrats are promising to raise the stamp duty threshold if they win the general election in a bid to court first-time house buyers. vince cable the party s treasury spokesman said raising the threshold to £150 000 would prevent over 400 000 home-buyers from paying the tax. he said first-time buyers were being squeezed out of the housing market. the labour party said the liberal democrats needed to explain how they would pay for the plan. the plan forms part of a wider lib dems policy to encourage first time buyers and those on lower incomes into the market. under the proposals the average saving for a new buyer would be more than £1 000 according to mr cable. first time buyers are being squeezed out of the housing market not only by higher house prices but also by being swept into the stamp duty net he said. by failing to uprate the stamp duty threshold gordon brown has hit first time buyers and those on low incomes the hardest. by pledging to increase the threshold to £150 000 the liberal democrats will make it possible for many first time buyers to buy a property without facing this tax. paul boateng mp labour s chief secretary to the treasury said: the lib dems sums don t add up. they can have no credibility until they can say how they would fund their ever growing list of tax and spending commitments. mr cable will publish his alternative budget on monday.
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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
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campbell: e-mail row silly fuss ex-no 10 media chief alastair campbell is at the centre of a new political row over an e-mail containing a four-letter outburst aimed at bbc journalists. mr campbell sent the missive by mistake to bbc2 s newsnight after it sought to question his role in labour s controversial poster campaign. he later contacted the show saying the original e-mail had been sent in error and that it was all a silly fuss . mr campbell has recently re-joined labour s election campaign. the e-mail was revealed the day after peter mandelson former labour minister and now a european commissioner warned the bbc to steer away from demonising mr campbell. mr campbell messaged newsnight after the programme investigated claims that labour s advertising agency tbwa was blaming him for controversy over its campaign posters. the images including one of flying pigs and another of what critics claim depicted tory leader michael howard as fagin prompted accusations of anti-semitism claims denied by labour. mr campbell s e-mail which was apparently intended for a party official suggested they should get trevor beattie tbwa s boss to issue a statement. in it he said: just spoke to trev. think tbwa shd give statement to newsnight saying party and agency work together well and nobody here has spoken to standard. posters done by by tbwa according to political brief. now fuck off and cover something important you twats! the e-mail was sent by mistake to newsnight journalist andrew mcfadyen. realising his error mr campbell then e-mailed mr mcfadyen pointing out the mistake but suggesting presenter jeremy paxman would have seen the funny side. he said: not very good at this e-mail blackberry malarkey. just looked at log of sent messages have realised e-mail meant for colleagues at tbwa has gone to you. for the record first three sentences of email spot on. no row between me and trevor. posters done by them according to our brief. i dreamt up flying pigs. pigs not great but okay in the circs of tories promising tax cuts and spending rises with the same money. tbwa made production. campbell swears shock. final sentence of earlier e-mail probably a bit colourful and personal considering we have never actually met but i m sure you share the same sense of humour as your star presenter mr p. never known such a silly fuss since the last silly fuss but there we go. must look forward not back. later the prime minister s spokesman was asked by journalists about his view on mr campbell s use of abusive language. the spokesman said: the person you are referring to is capable of speaking for himself and he no longer works in government. foreign secretary jack straw said he had always had very good and polite relations with mr campbell who he described as very talented . but on the former spin doctor s use of language mr straw said: i do know the odd journalist who has occasionally used the odd word that would probably be inappropriate in some circumstances. maybe i mix with the wrong kind of journalists. liam fox tory co-chairman said the return of mr campbell was a sign of new sinister and underhand tactics by labour.
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two nigerian banks set to merge nigerian banks united bank of africa and standard trust bank have agreed plans to merge and create the biggest bank in west africa. the deal is also in line with a 2004 directive from the nigerian central bank that called for more consolidation in the nation s crowded banking sector. the merger was announced in a statement on standard trust s website on tuesday but no financial details were revealed. united bank is the third biggest in nigeria in terms of number of branches. standard trust is smaller but more profitable. the boards of united bank and standard trust at separate meetings yesterday approved arrangements to merge both institutions standard trust said. standard trust is 100% nigerian-owned but united bank has some foreign investors including new york-based global depository receipts (32.8%) and banca nazionale del lavoro and monte del paschi di siena both from italy who each have a 2.4% stake.
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lufthansa flies back to profit german airline lufthansa has returned to profit in 2004 after posting huge losses in 2003. in a preliminary report the airline announced net profits of 400m euros ($527.61m; £274.73m) compared with a loss of 984m euros in 2003. operating profits were at 380m euros ten times more than in 2003. lufthansa was hit in 2003 by tough competition and a dip in demand following the iraq war and the killer sars virus. it was also hit by troubles at its us catering business. last year lufthansa showed signs of recovery even as some european and us airlines were teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. the board of lufthansa has recommended paying a 2004 dividend of 0.30 euros per share. in 2003 shareholders did not get a dividend. the company said that it will give all the details of its 2004 results on 23 march.
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anti-spam laws bite spammer hard the net s self-declared spam king is seeking bankruptcy protection. scott richter the man behind optinrealbig.com and billions of junk mail messages said lawsuits had forced the company into chapter 11. optinrealbig was fighting several legal battles most notably against microsoft which is pushing for millions of dollars in damages. the company said filing for chapter 11 would help it try to resolve its legal problems but still keep trading. listed as the third biggest spammer in the world by junk mail watchdog spamhaus optinrealbig was sued in december 2003 for sending mail messages that violated anti-spam laws. the lawsuit was brought by microsoft and new york attorney general eliot spitzer who alleged that mr richter and his accomplices sent billions of spam messages through 514 compromised net addresses in 35 countries. according to microsoft the messages were sent via net addresses owned by the kuwait ministries of communication and finance several korean schools the seoul municipal boramae hospital and the virginia community college system. mr richter settled the attorney general case in july 2004 but the legal fight with microsoft is continuing. microsoft is seeking millions in dollars in damages from optinrealbig under anti-spam laws that impose penalties for every violation. in a statement announcing the desire to seek bankruptcy protection the company said it: could not continue to contend with legal maneuvers (sic) by a number of companies across the country including microsoft and still run a viable business. in its chapter 11 filing optinrealbig claimed it had assets of less than $10m (£5.29m) but debts of more than $50m which included the $46m that microsoft is seeking via its lawsuit. the litigation has been a relentless distraction with which to contend said steven richter legal counsel for optinrealbig. but make no mistake we do expect to prevail. for its part optinrealbig describes itself as a premier internet marketing company and said the move to seek chapter 11 was necessary to let it keep trading while sorting out its legal battles.
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weir poised for sunderland move larne s teenage star robbie weir is poised to join sunderland after turning down a move to stoke city. the 17-year-old irish league midfielder was also being chased by rangers and fulham but mick mccarthy s side appear to have won the race. but larne boss jimmy mcgeough has yet to confirm that weir is on his way from inver park. i heard on sunday that he has joined sunderland but not from the lad himself he said. robbie has an agreement with larne that he can negotiate with interested clubs. personally i would rather see him making an impact at local level to build up his physique before moving into the full-time game. he has been on trial with a number of clubs. but it would be great to see him making it at sunderland.
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rem concerts blighted by illness us rock band rem have been forced to cancel concerts after bass player mike mills was taken to hospital suffering from severe flu-like symptoms . the band were forced to cut short monday night s show in sheffield and have cancelled tuesday s glasgow date. mills could hardly stand up let alone play said an rem spokesman who added he is now resting in hospital. the remainder of the band played a short acoustic set on monday. tuesday s gig has been rescheduled for 15 june. those who had a ticket for the show in glasgow are being advised to retain their ticket stub so they can attend the new date. the band s spokesman said that they would review their remaining dates on a day-to-day basis based on doctors advice to mills. obviously we all want mike to get better and clearly we all want to play the shows. rest assured we will do so as soon as possible he said. the band were still hopeful they would be able to make their wednesday date added the spokesman. rem played accoustic versions of their hits losing my religion i ve been high leaving new york and the one i love to the sheffield arena audience on monday. the band had originally been scheduled to play four dates in the uk as part of a world tour. in 1995 former drummer bill berry collapsed in switzerland while the band was on tour having suffered a ruptured aneurysm. he made a full recovery only to leave the band two years later.
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goodrem wins top female mtv prize pop singer delta goodrem has scooped one of the top individual prizes at the first australian mtv music awards. the 21-year-old singer won the award for best female artist with australian idol runner-up shannon noll taking the title of best male at the ceremony. goodrem known in both britain and australia for her role as nina tucker in tv soap neighbours also performed a duet with boyfriend brian mcfadden. other winners included green day voted best group and the black eyed peas. goodrem green day and the black eyed peas took home two awards each. as well as best female goodrem also took home the pepsi viewers choice award whilst green day bagged the prize for best rock video for american idiot. the black eyed peas won awards for best r n b video and sexiest video both for hey mama. local singer and songwriter missy higgins took the title of breakthrough artist of the year with australian idol winner guy sebastian taking the honours for best pop video. the vh1 first music award went to cher honouring her achievements within the music industry. the ceremony was held at the luna park fairground in sydney harbour and was hosted by the osbourne family. artists including carmen electra missy higgins kelly osbourne green day ja rule and natalie imbruglia gave live performances at the event.
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entertainment
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apple attacked over sources row civil liberties group the electronic frontier foundation (eff) has joined a legal fight between three us online journalists and apple. apple wants the reporters to reveal 20 sources used for stories which leaked information about forthcoming products including the mac mini. the eff representing the reporters has asked california s superior court to stop apple pursuing the sources. it argues that the journalists are protected by the american constitution. the eff says the case threatens the basic freedoms of the press. apple is particularly keen to find the source for information about an unreleased product code-named asteroid and has asked the journalists e-mail providers to hand over communications relevant to that. rather than confronting the issue of reporter s privilege head-on apple is going to the journalist s isps for his e-mails said eff lawyer kurt opsahl. this undermines a fundamental first amendment right that protects all reporters. if the court lets apple get away with this and exposes the confidences gained by these reporters potential confidential sources will be deterred from providing information to the media and the public will lose a vital outlet for independent news analysis and commentary he said. the case began in december 2004 when apple asked a local californian court to get the journalists to reveal their sources for articles published on websites appleinsider.com and powerpage.org. apple also sent requested information from the nfox.com the internet service provider of powerpage s publisher jason o-grady. as well as looking at how far corporations can go in preventing information from being published the case will also examine whether online journalists have the same privileges and protections as those writing for newspapers and magazines. the eff has gained some powerful allies in its legal battle with apple including professor tom goldstein former dean of the journalism school at the university of california and dan gillmor a well-known silicon valley journalist. apple was not immediately available for comment.
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tech
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turkey-iran mobile deal at risk turkey s investment in iran s mobile industry looks set to be scrapped after its biggest mobile firm saw its investment there slashed by mps. iran s parliament voted by a large majority to cut turkcell s stake in a new mobile network from 70% to 49%. the move which was justified on national security grounds follows an earlier vote by mps to give themselves a veto over foreign investments. turkcell said the decision increases the risks attached to the project. although the company s statement said it would continue to monitor developments observers said they thought turkcell was set to pull out of the $3bn deal. the possibility of carrying out this project is next to zero said atinc ozkan analyst at finans investment in istanbul. if turkcell does back out mtn - the south african firm which lost out in the original tender - may well be back in the running. the company has said it is prepared to accept a minority stake if iran will award it the mobile deal. turkcell s mobile deal is the second turkish investment in iran to run into trouble. turkish-austrian consortium tav was chosen to build and run tehran s new imam khomeini international airport - but the army closed it just hours after it opened in may 2004. in both cases the justification has been national security amid allegations that the turkish firms are too close to israel. the hardline posture taken by parliament which is dominated by religious conservatives could yet impact other inward investments.
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business
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tories reject rethink on axed mp sacked mp howard flight s local conservative association has insisted he will not be its candidate at the general election. russell tanguay agent for arundel and south downs tories said mr flight was ineligible to be a candidate and the association was seeking a substitute. the news comes despite mr flight s allies saying they had enough support to hold a meeting to discuss his fate. mr flight landed in trouble over remarks on tory tax and spending plans. he quit as tory deputy chairman after apparently suggesting the tories planned extra spending cuts - but he wants to continue as an mp. tory headquarters says he cannot stand as a conservative candidate because he is no longer an approved candidate. mr tanguay backed that view on tuesday saying: howard flight is ineligible to stand as a conservative party candidate. the association is in the process of selecting a new candidate. but the local tory chairman made similar comments on friday and dissent continues. two local councillors who back mr flight met mr tanguay and the local association s chairman in arundel on tuesday afternoon but did not comment as they left the meeting. mr flight says he will not stand down as a candidate unless his local party instructs him to do so at an extraordinary general meeting (egm). the mp who is consulting his lawyers told bbc news: they selected me and they if you like dispose of me or keep me. mr flight s supporters also say they have the 50 signatures needed to trigger the egm. at a news conference mr howard insisted he had played by the party s rules. the tory leader who argues he is ensuring honesty said: we do not say one thing in private and another thing in public. labour election campaign coordinator alan milburn said the tories were in turmoil because mr flight had exposed their hidden plans. the comments were not a one-off he said claiming mr howard and other senior tories were obsessively committed to cutting public spending. liberal democrat chairman matthew taylor said: whilst i disagree with howard flight s views it seems extraordinary to sack somebody for telling the truth. it has also emerged mr howard has suspended slough s constituency conservative association for refusing to deselect its candidate. adrian hilton was abandoned after suggesting the signing of the maastricht treaty under john major s government was an act of treason. the catholic herald also highlighted articles he wrote about the role of catholicism in the european union. mr hilton was chosen to fight the seat after the previous candidate robert oulds was sacked for being pictured with a range of guns and a hunting knife. slough conservative association has now been placed on support status and is being run from conservative campaign headquarters says a senior party spokesman. mr hilton on tuesday said he was considering taking legal action against his deposal. he said the local party had only learned of the final decision on the bbc news website on monday evening. there are people at central office who are behaving like little dictators and seemingly people who are ordinary members are being treated with contempt he said. the party says it did try to contact the local conservative chairman.
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politics
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help for indies in download sales a campaign has been launched to help independent labels get their music online and benefit from the growing trend for downloading music. the british phonographic industry has identified a lack of independent music available for download. we want to ensure that independent repertoire is as successful in the download world as it is in the physical world said bpi chief peter jamieson. downloaded singles have now overtaken physical singles in the uk. mr jamieson said his organisation was lobbying music service providers which include itunes and napster to urge them to promote independent releases. download sales are due to be incorporated into the uk singles chart later this year. with downloads shortly to be eligible for the singles chart this is a key commercial issue on which the bpi committed to assisting its members added mr jamieson. as part of the campaign the bpi is running a series of seminars entitled getting your music online focusing on how independent labels can embrace digital music. the us has already begun incorporating download sales in the billboard s hot 100 chart.
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entertainment
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be careful how you code a new european directive could put software writers at risk of legal action warns former programmer and technology analyst bill thompson. if it gets its way the dutch government will conclude its presidency of the european union by pushing through a controversial measure that has been rejected by the european parliament lacks majority support from national governments and will leave millions of european citizens in legal limbo and facing the possibility of court cases against them. if the new law was about border controls defence or even the new constitution then our tv screens would be full of experts agonising over the impact on our daily lives. sadly for those who will be directly affected the controversy concerns the patenting of computer programs a topic that may excite the bloggers campaigning groups and technical press but does not obsess middle britain. after all how much fuss can you generate about the directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions and the way it amends article 52 of the 1973 european patent convention yet if the new directive is nodded through at the next meeting of one of the eu s ministerial councils as seems likely it will allow programs to be patented in europe just as they are in the us. many observers of the computing scene including myself think the results will be disastrous for small companies innovative programmers and the free and open source software movement. it will let large companies patent all sorts of ideas and give legal force to those who want to limit their competitors use of really obvious ideas. in the us you cannot build a system that stores customer credit card details so that they can pay without having to re-enter them unless amazon lets you because they hold the patent on one-click online purchase. it is a small invention but amazon made it to the patent office first and now owns it. we are relatively free from this sort of thing over here but perhaps not for long. the new proposals go back to 2002 although argument about patentability of software and computer-implemented inventions has been going on since at least the mid-1980s. they have come to a head now after a year in which proposals were made endorsed by the council of ministers radically modified by the european parliament and then re-presented in their original form. some national governments seem to be aware of the problems. poland has rejected the proposal and germany s main political parties have opposed it but there is not enough opposition to guarantee their rejection. early in december the british government held a consultation meeting with those who had commented on the proposals. science minister lord sainsbury went along to listen and outline the uk position but according to those present it was embarrassing to see how little the minister and his officials actually understood the issues concerned. the draft directive is being put through the council as what is called an a item and can only be approved or rejected. no discussion or amendment is allowed. so why should we be worried first there is the abuse of the democratic process involved in disregarding the views of the parliament and abandoning all of their carefully argued amendments. this goes to the heart of the european project and even those who do not care about software or patents should be worried. if coders are treated like this today who is to say that it will not be you tomorrow more directly once software patents are granted then any programmer will have to worry that the code they are writing is infringing someone else s patent. this is not about stealing software as code is already protected by copyright. patents are not copyright but something much stronger. a patent gives the owner the right to stop anyone else using their invention even if the other person invented it separately. i have never to my shame managed to read lord byron s childe harold s pilgrimage. if it was pointed out that one of my articles contained a substantial chunk of the poem then i could defend myself in court by claiming that i had simply made it up and it was coincidence. the same does not hold for a patent. if i sit down this afternoon and write a brilliant graphics compression routine and it happens to be the same as the lzw algorithm used in gif files then i am in trouble under patent law at least in the us. coincidence is no defence. the proposed directive is supported by many of the major software companies but this is hardly surprising since most of them are us-based and they have already had to cope with a legal environment that allows patents. they have legal departments and more crucially patents of their own which they can trade or cross-license with other patent holders. even this system breaks down of course as microsoft found out last year when they initially lost a case brought by eolas which claimed that internet explorer (and other browsers) infringed an eolas patent. that one was eventually thrown out but only after months of uncertainty and millions of dollars. but small companies and the free and open software movement do not have any patents to trade. much of the really useful software we use every day programs like the apache web server the gnu/linux operating system and the fearsomely popular firefox browser is developed outside company structures by people who do not have legal departments to check for patent infringements. the damage to software will not happen overnight of course. if the directive goes through it has to be written into national laws and then there will be a steady stream of legal actions against small companies and open source products. eventually someone will decide to attack linux directly probably with some secret funding from one or two large players. the new directive will limit innovation by forcing programmers to spend time checking for patent infringements or simply avoiding working in potentially competitive areas. and it will damage europe s computer industry. we can only hope that the council of ministers has the integrity and strength to reject this bad law. bill thompson is a regular commentator on the bbc world service programme go digital.
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tech
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commodore finds new lease of life the once-famous commodore computer brand could be resurrected after being bought by a us-based digital music distributor. new owner yeahronimo media ventures has not ruled out the possibility of a new breed of commodore computers. it also plans to develop a worldwide entertainment concept with the brand although details are not yet known. the groundbreaking commodore 64 computer elicits fond memories for those who owned one back in the 1980s. in the chronology of home computing commodore was one of the pioneers. the commodore 64 launched in 1982 was one of the first affordable home pcs. it was followed a few years later by the amiga. the commodore 64 sold more than any other single computer system even to this day. the brand languished somewhat in the 1990s. commodore international filed for bankruptcy in 1994 and was sold to dutch firm tulip computers. in the late 1980s the firm was a great rival to atari which produced its own range of home computers and is now a brand of video games formerly known as infogrames. tulip computers sold several products under the commodore name including portable usb storage devices and digital music players. it had planned to relaunch the brand following an upsurge of nostalgia for 1980s-era games. commodore 64 enthusiasts have written emulators for windows pc apple mac and even pdas so that the original commodore games can be still run. the sale of commodore is expected to be complete in three weeks in a deal worth over £17m.
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tech
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eu fraud clampdown urged eu member states are failing to report fraud and irregularities in eu funds on a consistent basis the uk s public spending watchdog has said. the national audit office said although the latest figures showed reported fraud was falling the eu still had no common definition of fraud. it also expressed concern that for the 10th year the european court of auditors had qualified the eu accounts. the nao urged the government to push for improvements in reporting fraud. it said member states needed to be more accountable on how money was spent. the report said: member states still do not report fraud and other irregularities to the european anti-fraud office on a consistent basis. as the court has now qualified its opinion on the community accounts for a decade it is essential for all the authorities involved to contribute to the strengthening of the audit of eu revenue and expenditure and improving accountability for the financial management and use of eu resources. it said there were 922 cases of reported fraud or irregularities in eu funds in the uk in 2003 worth £38.5m (52m euros) up from 831 cases worth £35.7m in 2002. at the same time reported fraud throughout the eu dropped from 10 276 cases worth £808m to 8 177 cases worth £644m. edward leigh chairman of the commons public accounts committee said britain had to set an example when it assumed the eu presidency. any fraud in other member states is potentially fraud against the uk taxpayer given that we are the second largest net contributor to the community he said. departments responsible for administering eu funds need to make sure that they re doing everything possible to weed out improper spending. the government must take the opportunity afforded by the uk presidency of the eu to press the commission and other member states to take an equally robust stance against fraud and irregularity and raise overall standards of financial management. a spokesman for the european anti-fraud office said the organisation agreed with the nao s assessment of fraud reporting. the quality of reporting does differ from member state to member state and there is room for improvement spokesman jorg wojahn said. he added that there is generally good co-operation with member states and the anti-fraud office on specific cases of fraud with the statistics studied by nao providing a good overview for planning strategic ways of detecting fraud .
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politics
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brizzel to run aaa s in sheffield ballymena sprinter paul brizzel will be among eight of ireland s european indoor hopefuls competing in this weekend s aaa s championships. us-based alistair cragg and mark carroll are the only irish athletes selected so far for the europeans who will not run in sheffield. brizzel will defend his 200m title in the british trials. in-form james mcilroy will hope to confirm his place in the british team for madrid by winning the 800m title. mcilroy has been in tremendous form on the european circuit in recent weeks. he is one of the fastest 800m runners in the world this winter and already seems assured of a place in madrid. corkman mark carroll confirmed in midweek that he would join cragg in the european championships. carroll is ranked number three in the world 3000m ranking at the moment with cragg occupying top spot. meanwhile nine-times champion dermot donnelly will not be coming out of retirement to compete in the northern ireland cross country championships in coleraine on saturday. an injury crisis in the annadale striders squad led to donnelly being entered by coach john mclaughlin but the athlete told bbc sport on friday evening that he would not be running. willowfield s paul rowan will go in as individual favourite but annadale could have a tough job holding on to their team title as andrew dunwoody and noel pollock are unlikely to run.
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sport
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isinbayeva heads for birmingham olympic pole vault champion yelena isinbayeva has confirmed she will take part in the 2005 norwich union grand prix in birmingham on 18 february. everybody knows how much i enjoy competing in britain. i always seem to break records there said isinbayeva. as olympic champion there will be more attention on me this year but hopefully i can respond with another record in birmingham. kelly holmes and carolina kluft are among other athens winners competing. the organisers are hoping that isinbayeva s main rival fellow russian svetlana feofanova will also take part in the event. the pair had a thrilling battle in athens which ended with isinbayeva finally jumping a world record of 4.91m to claim the gold medal. isinbayeva 22 has set 10 world records in the pole vault three of which have come on british soil.
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sport
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the memory driving brown s mission the memory gordon brown says keeps returning to him - the one that he says is burnt into him - is that of a 12 year-old girl whose parents died of aids and who is hiv positive herself. mr brown seems haunted by her eyes desolate of all hope. and then he talks of those eyes that do inspire optimism: an extraordinary performance by schoolgirls of kenya s largest slum advancing with crowded menace flicking their hips in a manner almost as disturbing before the finale of a clenched fist salute and shout of free education - free education for all . mr brown s message generally that compassion must become action before that hope is squandered. but he is such a pivotal figure in british politics it is almost impossible not to ask him why he is doing this. his answer in part is because of the missionaries that used to come to his father s church. ever since he says africa has been important to him. i ve absolutely no doubt whatsoever this is heartfelt. but he also believes it is time for the world to see a new gordon brown. not the dull reassuring bank manager but a man driven by a moral passion - and it just so happens the labour party feels an awful lot happier ridding the world of debt than ridding the world of dictators. there s also a sense of liberation. if mr blair won t allow him to run the election campaign then he can at least pretend it was all getting tedious and he d much rather be out examining social problems in the raw. it also goes some way to solving one of the overarching problems for all politicians of all parties: scepticism sliding into cynicism about politics itself. if he can help the world s poor just a little then it shows politics isn t worthless. but is his vision for africa too grand can poverty in the continent really be halved brown replies that no one thought the berlin wall would ever come down either. he s still got to overcome - not only the reluctance of other finance ministers in the world - but also the cynicism of experts who wonder whether debt relief will just be squandered by governments that just won t in the end spend wisely.
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politics
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michael film signals retirement singer george michael has said that a new film about his life is the start of a retirement from public view. the pop star said it would be a much more behind the scenes affair and called his own genre of music dead . i thought i should explain myself before i disappear said michael who was at the berlin film festival to launch the documentary. the film a different story chronicles michael s life and career from the 1980s and his personal struggles. the 41-year-old chart-topper told reporters in the german capital that he wanted to move his career into a different form but added that he does not know what it is going to be yet. i m still going to be making music he said but added that he was not going to be around . he hinted at discontent with the current state of music industry and said: i don t really think that there is anyone in the modern pop business who i feel i want to spar with. michael said that the film directed by southan morris would put his two decades of fame into context. it s almost as much for me as for my fans in terms of trying to make sense of the last 22 years and bring it to a close in a proper way he said. the documentary chronicles the highs and lows of his life in the public gaze from his meteoric rise as one half of pop duo wham! to his arrest for lewd conduct in a los angeles toilet in 1998. the film also deals with the loss of michael s partner anselmo feleppa from an aids-related condition in 1993. a different story which is being shown at the berlin film festival has been screened by bbc one.
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entertainment
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brussels raps mobile call charges the european commission has written to the mobile phone operators vodafone and t-mobile to challenge the high rates they charge for international roaming. in letters sent to the two companies the commission alleged the firms were abusing their dominant market position in the german mobile phone market. it is the second time vodafone has come under the commission s scrutiny. the uk operator is already appealing against allegations that its uk roaming rates are unfair and excessive . vodafone s response to the commission s letter was defiant. we believe the roaming market is competitive and we expect to resist the charges said a vodafone spokesman. however we will need time to examine the statement of objections in detail before we formally respond. the commission s investigation into vodafone and deutsche telekom s t-mobile centres on the tariffs the two companies charge foreign mobile operators to access their networks when subscribers of those foreign operators use their mobile phones in germany. the commission believes these wholesale prices are too high and that the excess is passed on to consumers. the commission aims to ensure that european consumers are not overcharged when they use their mobile phones on their travels around the european union the commission said in a statement. vodafone and o2 britain s other big mobile phone operator were sent similar statements of objections by the commission in july last year. vodafone sent the commission a response to those allegations in december last year and is now waiting for a reply. the vodafone spokesman said a similar process would be set in motion with these latest statement of objections about its operations in germany. the companies will have three months to respond to the commission s allegations and the process may go on for some time yet the spokesman said. the commission could charge the companies up to 10% of their annual turnover though in practice that sort of figure is rarely demanded. the commission s latest move comes just a few months after national telecoms regulators across europe launched a joint investigation which could lead to people being charged less for using their mobile phone when travelling abroad. the investigation involves regulators assessing whether there is effective competition in the roaming market.
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business
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apple attacked over sources row civil liberties group the electronic frontier foundation (eff) has joined a legal fight between three us online journalists and apple. apple wants the reporters to reveal 20 sources used for stories which leaked information about forthcoming products including the mac mini. the eff representing the reporters has asked california s superior court to stop apple pursuing the sources. it argues that the journalists are protected by the american constitution. the eff says the case threatens the basic freedoms of the press. apple is particularly keen to find the source for information about an unreleased product code-named asteroid and has asked the journalists e-mail providers to hand over communications relevant to that. rather than confronting the issue of reporter s privilege head-on apple is going to the journalist s isps for his e-mails said eff lawyer kurt opsahl. this undermines a fundamental first amendment right that protects all reporters. if the court lets apple get away with this and exposes the confidences gained by these reporters potential confidential sources will be deterred from providing information to the media and the public will lose a vital outlet for independent news analysis and commentary he said. the case began in december 2004 when apple asked a local californian court to get the journalists to reveal their sources for articles published on websites appleinsider.com and powerpage.org. apple also sent requested information from the nfox.com the internet service provider of powerpage s publisher jason o-grady. as well as looking at how far corporations can go in preventing information from being published the case will also examine whether online journalists have the same privileges and protections as those writing for newspapers and magazines. the eff has gained some powerful allies in its legal battle with apple including professor tom goldstein former dean of the journalism school at the university of california and dan gillmor a well-known silicon valley journalist. apple was not immediately available for comment.
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tech
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top gig award for scissor sisters new york band scissor sisters have won a gig of the year award for their performance at this year s v festival. the award was voted for by listeners of virgin radio which compiled a top 10 which was mostly dominated by newcomers on the music scene this year. the quirky disco-rock band beat the red hot chili peppers who came second for their hyde park performance in june. virgin radio dj pete mitchell said: this year has seen an amazing array of talent come into the mainstream. he added: the scissor sisters are one of the most original eccentric bands to come through and it s no surprise the british public are lapping up their performances. newcomers keane came in third place for their august gig at the v festival followed by maroon 5 and snow patrol. music veterans the who and david bowie both earned places on the list at number eight and 10 respectively. at number seven was oxfam s make fair trade gig at london s hammersmith apollo in october which featured performances by rem razorlight and coldplay s chris martin. glasgow s franz ferdinand earned a place at number nine for their home-town performance in april. the annual survey was voted for by nearly 4 000 listeners.
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entertainment
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eu-us seeking deal on air dispute the eu and us have agreed to begin talks on ending subsidies given to aircraft makers eu trade commissioner peter mandelson has announced. both sides hope to reach a negotiated deal over state aid received by european aircraft maker airbus and its us rival boeing mr mandelson said. airbus and boeing accuse each other of benefiting from illegal subsidies. mr mandelson said the eu and us hoped to avoid having to resolve the dispute at the world trade organisation (wto). with this agreement the eu and us have confirmed their willingness to resolve the dispute which has arisen between them mr mandelson said. i hope our negotiations in the next three months will lead to an agreement ending subsidies to development and production of large civil aircraft. last year the us terminated an agreement with the eu reached in 1992 which limits the subsidies countries can hand over to civil aircraft makers. the us filed a complaint against brussels with the wto over state aid to airbus prompting a retaliatory eu complaint over us support for boeing. however both sides agreed to suspend their requests for wto arbitration at the beginning of december to allow bilateral talks to continue. eads and bae systems the european defence and aerospace firms which own airbus welcomed mr mandelson s announcement. it has always been preferable that any differences between the us and europe on this matter be overcome through constructive discussion rather than through legal recourse the companies said in a joint statement. separately the world s largest package delivery company ups said it had placed an order for 10 airbus a380 superjumbo freight-carrying jets with an option to buy 10 more of the triple-decker aircraft. the us company said it needed to expand its air freight capacity following strong international growth and would begin receiving deliveries of the a380s from 2009. however ups said it was cutting a previous order for smaller airbus a300s from 90 planes to 53. so far airbus has delivered 40 a300s to ups. airbus overtook boeing as the world s largest manufacturer of commercial airliners in 2003.
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business
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vera drake scoops film award oscar hopefuls mike leigh and imelda staunton were both winners at the 2004 evening standard british film awards. vera drake - leigh s 1950s drama about a backstreet abortionist - was named best film and staunton who played the title role was named best actress. other winners included paddy considine who was crowned best actor for his role in dead man s shoes. bridget jones: the edge of reason was named evening standard readers film of 2004 at the central london ceremony. leigh was presented with his winner s statuette by timothy spall and staunton s award was announced by patrick stewart during the glittering ceremony at the savoy on sunday night. evening standard film critic derek malcolm said: he [leigh] has never made a film that is better controlled and technically more secure... if this isn t one of the films of the year i don t know what is. the alexander walker special award - which honours those who have made a supreme contribution to british film - went to tim bevan and eric fellner the co-chairmen of working title films. the production company is behind films such as my beautiful laundrette billy elliot about a boy shaun of the dead and bridget jones: the edge of reason. simon pegg who stars in and co-wrote shaun of the dead won the 2004 peter sellers award for comedy. other winners included emily blunt and nathalie press who were jointly named itv london most promising newcomer award for their performances in pawel pawlikowski s rites-of-passage story my summer of love. pawlikowski won the best screenplay statuette while roger deakins won the technical achievement award for his cinematography on the village and the ladykillers. guests at the ceremony included dame judi dench kim cattrall charles dance bill nighy and colin firth. the awards which were hosted by jack dee are to be screened on itv london on tuesday at 2300 gmt.
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entertainment
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domain system scam fear a system to make it easier to create website addresses using alphabets like cyrillic could open a back door for scammers a trade body has warned. the internationalised domain names system has been a work in progress for years and has recently been approved by the internet electronic task force. but the uk internet forum (ukif) is concerned that the system will let scammers create fake sites more easily. the problem lies in the computer codes used to represent language. registering names that look like that of legitimate companies but lead users to fake sites designed to steal passwords and credit card details could become a whole lot easier for determined scammers says stephen dyer director of ukif. domain names are the real language addresses of websites rather than their internet protocol address which is a series of numbers. they are used so people can more easily navigate the web. so-called ascii codes are used to represent european languages but for other languages a hybrid of a system called unicode is used. so for example website paypal could now be coded using a mixture of the latin alphabet and the russian alphabet. the resulting domain as displayed to the users would look identical to the real site as a russian a look just like an english a . but the computer code would be different and the site it would lead users to could be a fake. this is more than just a theory. a fake paypal.com has already been registered with net domain giant verisign by someone who has followed the debate around the internationalised domain name (idn) system said mr dyer. as the idea was to prove a point rather than be malicious the fake domain has now been handed back to paypal but it sets a worrying precedent mr dyer said. although the idn problem is well known in technical circles the commercial world is totally unaware how easily their websites can be faked said mr dyer. it is important to alert users that there is a new and invisible and almost undetectable way of diverting them to what looks like a perfectly genuine site he added. there are solutions. for instance browsers could spot domains that use mixed characters and display them in different colours as a warning to users. mr dyer acknowledged that it would be a huge undertaking to update all the world s browsers. another solution to introduce idn-disabled browsers could be a case of throwing out the baby with the bath water he said. centr the council of european national top level domain registries agrees. a rush to introduce idn-disabled browsers into the marketplace is an overly-zealous step that will harm public confidence in idns - a technology that is desperately needed in the non-english speaking world the organisation said in a statement.
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tech
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robben plays down european return injured chelsea winger arjen robben has insisted that he only has a 10% chance of making a return against barcelona in the champions league. the 21-year-old has been sidelined since breaking a foot against blackburn last month. chelsea face barcelona at home on 8 march having lost 2-1 in the first leg. and robben told the daily star: it is not impossible that i will play against barcelona but it is just a very very small chance - about 10%. robben has been an inspirational player for chelsea this season following a switch from psv einhoven last summer. he added: my recovery is going better than we expected a few weeks ago but i think the barcelona game will come too soon. i won t take any risks and come back too soon.
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dutch bank to lay off 2 850 staff abn amro the netherlands largest bank is to cut 2 850 jobs as a result of falling profits. the cuts - amounting to 3% of the bank s workforce - will result in a one-off charge of 790m euros ($1.1bn). about 1 100 jobs will go in investment banking while 1 200 and 550 will go in it and human resources respectively. abn amro is the third large european bank to announce cutbacks in the past month following deutsche bank and credit suisse group. its profitability has been hit by a fall in mortgage lending in the united states - the bank s largest single market - following recent interest rate rises. abn amro s operations in the netherlands and the united kingdom will be hardest hit. jobs will also be lost in the us - which accounted for 46% of profit in the first half of 2004 - and across its operations in the americas and asia-pacific regions. the restructuring is designed to improve efficiency by reducing administrative costs and increasing focus on client service. the bank said it was on course for a 10% rise in net income this year but operating profits are set to fall because of a fall in us revenues. abn amro currently has more than 100 000 staff. to get any profit growth in the coming years they will have to lower costs so shedding jobs makes total sense ivo geijsen an analyst with bank oyens & van eeghen told bloomberg. europe s leading banks seem set for a period of retrenchment. deutsche bank said earlier this month it would reduce its german workforce by 1 920 while as many as 300 jobs will be lost at credit suisse first boston.
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business
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microsoft takes on desktop search microsoft has entered the desktop search fray releasing a test version of its tool to find documents e-mails and other files on a pc hard drive. the beta program only works on pcs running windows xp or windows 2000. the desktop search market is becoming increasingly crowded with firms touting programs that help people find files. search giant google launched its desktop search tool in october while yahoo is planning to release similar software in january. our ambition for search is to provide the ultimate information tool that can find anything you re looking for said yusuf mehdi corporate vice president at microsoft s msn internet division. microsoft s program can be used as a toolbar on the windows desktop the internet explorer browser and within the outlook e-mail program. the software giant is coming late to the desktop search arena competing with a large number of rivals. google has already released a desktop tool. yahoo is planning to get into the game in january and aol is expected to offer desktop searching early next year. small firms such as blinkx copernic enfish x1 technologies and x-friend offer tools that catalogue the huge amounts of information that people increasingly store on their desktop or home computer. apple will release a similar search system for its computers called spotlight that is due to be released with the tiger operating system.
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tech
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strachan turns down pompey former southampton manager gordon strachan has rejected the chance to become portsmouth s new boss. the scot was pompey chairman milan mandaric s first choice to replace harry redknapp who left fratton park for rivals saints earlier in december. i think it s a fantastic job for anybody apart from somebody who has just been the southampton manager strachan told the bbc. club director terry brady held initial talks with strachan on saturday. the former scotland international added that joining southampton s local rivals would not be a wise move. it s got everything going for it but i ve got too many memories of the other side and i don t want to sour those memories he said. everything s right - it s 10 minutes away there are good players there a good set-up a good atmosphere at the ground. there s lots to do but it s not right for somebody who has just been the southampton manager. since redknapp s departure executive director velimir zajec and coach joe jordan have overseen first-team affairs. the duo had gone five matches unbeaten until sunday s 1-0 defeat at home to champions arsenal but the club are still in a respectable 12th place in the premiership table. strachan left st mary s in february after earlier announcing his intention to take a break from the game at the end of the 2003-04 season. his previous managerial experience came at coventry whom he led for five years from 1996 to 2001.
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millions to miss out on the net by 2025 40% of the uk s population will still be without internet access at home says a study. around 23 million britons will miss out on a wide range of essential services such as education and medical information predicts the report by telecoms giant bt. it compares to 27 million or 50% of the uk who are not currently online. the idea that the digital divide will evaporate with time is wishful thinking the report concludes. the study calls on the government and telecoms industry to come up with new ways to lure those that have been bypassed by the digital revolution. although the percentage of britons without home access will have fallen slightly those that remain digital refuseniks will miss out on more the report suggests. as more and more everyday tasks move online and offline services become less comprehensive the divide will become more obvious and more burdensome for those that have not got net access it predicts. the gap between have-nets and have-nots has been much talked about but predictions about how such a divide will affect future generations has been less discussed. bt set out to predict future patterns based on current information and taking account of the way technology is changing. optimists who predict that convergence and the emergence of more user-friendly technology will bridge the digital divide could be way off mark the report suggests. internet access on other devices tends to be something taken up by those who already have it said adrian hosford director of corporate responsibility at bt. costs of internet access have fallen dramatically and coverage in remote areas have vastly improved over the last year but the real barrier remains psychological. there is a hard rump of have-nots who are not engaging with the net. they don t have the motivation or skills or perceive the benefits said mr hosford. as now the most disadvantaged groups are likely to remain among low income families the older generation and the disabled. those on low incomes will account for a quarter of the digital have-nots the disabled will make up 16% and the elderly nearly a third by 2025 the report forecasts. organisations such as bt have a responsibility to help tackle the problem said mr hosford. the telco has seen positive results with its everybody online project which offers internet access to people in eight deprived communities around britain. in one area of cornwall with high levels of unemployment online training helped people rewrite cvs and learn skills to get new jobs explained mr hosford. such grassroot activity addressing the specific needs of individual communities is essential is the problem of the digital divide is to be overcome he said. if we don t address this problem now it will get a lot worse and people will find it more difficult to find jobs education opportunities will be limited and they ll simply not be able to keep up with society he said. the alliance for digital inclusion an independent body with members drawn from government industry and the voluntary sector has recently been set up to tackle some of the issues faced by the digital refuseniks.
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tech
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mps tout lords replacement plan a group of mps has tried to raise the pressure on tony blair over reform to the house of lords by publishing a detailed blueprint for change. the cross-party group has unveiled a draft bill proposing a smaller second chamber in which 70% of members would be elected. mps and peers have failed to agree on reform since 1999 when 600 hereditaries lost their seats. the group says it can win support for removing the last 92 hereditaries. the government postponed plans to remove the remaining hereditary peers because they said they were unlikely to succeed after opposition in the lords. tony blair has argued. there needs to be consensus on reforms. there have been suggestions there will be proposals for changing at least the powers of the lords in labour s manifesto. but the all-party group including tories ken clarke and sir george young labour s robin cook and tony wright and liberal democrat paul tyler is confident its plan would win support from a large majority . and they list former conservative leader william hague and former labour leader neil kinnock as supporters of the plans. the group says the british public and a clear majority of mps support replacing the lords with a largely-elected second chamber. their plan would see the house of lords being renamed the second chamber of parliament and its members would be known as mscps. there would be 385 mscps including 270 elected members 87 appointed members and 16 bishops. they would serve for between 12 and 14 years. mr cook said holding elections for mscps on the same day as those for mps might help motivate the electorate and increase voter turnout. he added: over the last year i have seen many statements from senior figures of this government insisting the public must have the right of choice. what could be more important than a choice of the people who sit in our parliament the group believes pressure is growing for change and the government s current position is unsustainable. it wants all three main parties to include a commitment to a largely democratic second chamber in their manifestos. mr clarke said the issue went to the heart of reforming the health of the british political system . and mr tyler said the prime minister s view that there was no agreement on the shape of the future of the lords was flawed. the problem i think in the prime minister s mind is there doesn t appear to be a consensus that includes him he said. we are providing a consensus . the elect the lords campaign said the draft bill was an important contribution to the debate. we believe this draft bill is detailed enough to form the basis of closer parliamentary scrutiny said co-ordinator peter facey. in lieu of any other such clear proposals the government must permit that to happen.
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irish duo could block man utd bid irishmen jp mcmanus and john magnier who own a 29% stake in manchester united will reportedly reject any formal £800m offer for the club. the sunday times and the sunday telegraph say they will oppose any formal £800m takeover bid from us tycoon malcom glazer. mr glazer got permission to look at the club s accounts last week. irish billionaires mr mcmanus and mr magnier are said to believe that an £800m bid undervalues club prospects. mr magnier and mr mcmanus who hold their stake through their cubic expression investment vehicle have the power to block a bid. mr glazer s financial backers including jp morgan the us investment bank have said they won t back a bid unless it receives backing from the owners of at least 75% of the club s shares. however there has been much speculation that the irish duo simply do not think the price offered - 300p a share - is high enough. mr glazer has been stalking the premier league football club since 2003. mr magnier and mr mcmanus issued a statement late on friday saying that they remained long-term investors in man utd. the sunday telegraph says the board of manchester united also considered a management buyout at just over 300p but did not go ahead with it.
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business
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blair congratulates bush on win tony blair has said he looks forward to continuing his strong relationship with george bush and working with him during his second term as president. mr bush s re-election came at a crucial time for a world that was fractured divided and uncertain mr blair said. it had to be brought together he added saying action was needed on poverty the middle east and the conditions on which terrorists prey. mr blair said states had to work with the us to fight global terrorism. but there was a need to recognise it would not be defeated by military might alone but also by demonstrating the strength of our common values he added. solving the conflict in the middle east was the world s single most pressing political challenge of the present day mr blair warned. the prime minister also urged europe and the us to build anew their alliance . all of us in positions of leadership not just president bush have a responsibility to rise to this challenge. it is urgent that we do so. mr blair also paid tribute to democrat john kerry s campaign saying he had helped make the presidential election a true celebration of american democracy . the election of the us president was significant for the world but particularly so for britain because of its special relationship he added. earlier tory leader michael howard sent mr bush his warmest congratulations saying: we look to the president to be a unifying force for those all over the world who share our determination to defend freedom. liberal democrat leader charles kennedy welcomed the fact there had been a quick conclusion to the election unlike in 2000. mr bush s first task was to rebuild a sense of domestic purpose within the us he said. mr kennedy said: internationally it is to be hoped that a second term will see a more sensitive approach to relations with long-standing allies not least for the global efforts to combat terrorism. lib dem foreign affairs spokesman menzies campbell said a win by mr kerry would have given mr blair the chance of a fresh start adding it was almost as if there was an umbilical cord between mr bush and the uk premier. europeans must hope that his administration will be much more multilateral in character and that he will act swiftly to rebuild the atlantic partnership which is so vital to security. iraq will remain an issue of potential division for some time to come. even before the result became clear mr blair was being urged to push for action on climate change at his first meeting with whichever candidate won. liberal democrat environment spokesman norman baker underlined the issue of global warming during a commons debate on anglo-american relations on wednesday. environment secretary margaret beckett has said the us will act on global warming despite george bush s refusal to sign up to the kyoto protocol on carbon emissions. public opinion would force change she told bbc news. but myron ebell an adviser on climate change to president bush has said there would be no change in the us stance and rejected the threat of climate change. he claimed the us was the only country with independent scientists.
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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.
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entertainment
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finding new homes for old phones re-using old mobile phones is not just good for the environment it has social benefits too. research has found that in some developing nations old mobile phones can help close the digital divide. the forum for the future research found that the low cost of these recycled handsets means they can have a very useful second life in poorer nations. but the forum found that more needed to be done to collect old phones rather than let them rot in landfill sites. the report reveals that approximately 15 million mobile phones go out of use every year in the uk. of the 15 million that are swapped for newer models each year only 25% get returned to mobile phone firms for recycling or re-use. the slowly growing mass of unrecycled discarded phones has now reached 90 million handsets the equivalent of 9 000 tonnes of waste estimates james goodman report author and a senior adviser at the forum for the future. it s quite common for people to have two or three phones just lying around said mr goodman. many of these older phones could end up in landfill sites leaking the potentially toxic materials they are made of into the wider world said mr goodman. far better he said to hand the phone back to an operator who can send it overseas where it can enjoy a second lease of life. we ve heard the environmental argument for handing a phone back said mr goodman but there s a strong social argument too. older mobile phones are proving particularly useful in poorer nations where people want to use a mobile and keep in touch with friends and family but do not have the income to buy the most up to date model. the forum for the future report took an in-depth look at romania where reconditioned mobile phones were proving very popular. it s an interesting country because it has a really crap fixed line network said mr goodman and there s a real desire for people to get mobile phones. but the relatively low wages in romania which is one of the poorest countries in europe mean few people can afford a shiny new phone. the affordability of the handsets is a real barrier to getting one he said. reconditioned handsets have boosted take-up of mobiles as the report revealed that almost one-third of romanian pre-pay mobile phone users were using reconditioned handsets. the re-used handsets tend to be about one-third of the price of a new handset. georgeta minciu a romanian part-time cleaner said: normally a mobile phone would not be possible on my wages. i am a single parent - keeping in touch with my daughter is important to me. this is the only way i can afford to have a phone she said. mr goodman said phone operators and consumers needed to do more to ensure that more of britain s mobile mountain made it overseas. but he added those keen to use a mobile will not accept any old handset. if its more than a few years old people are not going to want it he said.
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tech
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eminem beats elvis to number one rapper eminem has denied elvis his fourth number one of the year after his song like toy soldiers stormed to the top of the singles charts. the track claimed the top spot ahead of the king s latest re-release are you lonesome tonight. it is the fifth in a series of 18 reissues to mark the 70th anniversary of presley s birth. almost here the duet from former westlife star brian mcfadden and delta goodrem went in at number three. like toy soldiers from eminem s encore album is sampled from martika s 1980s hit toy soldiers. it takes a swipe at hip-hop feuds and follows the success of just lose it. last week s number one elvis s it s now or never slipped 13 places to number 14 but all five of his re-released songs are in the top 40. one world project tsunami fundraiser grief never grows old slipped four places to number eight. featuring cliff richard and boy george the song was written by former dj mike read. in the album charts athlete s latest offering tourist claimed the top spot toppling the chemical brother s push the button down which fell to number six.
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entertainment
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howard unveils tory asylum plans tory plans to cut immigration to the uk are not racist and will make the asylum system fairer for genuine refugees michael howard has said. as his party set out detailed asylum reform plans mr howard said they would help smash people smuggling gangs. there would be an annual limit on asylum and all claims would be processed overseas. some charities say the plans would put refugees lives at risk if they were turned away once quotas were filled. tony blair said labour would set out workable plans for tackling immigration abuse in the next few weeks and attacked the tory plans. by cutting the number of front-line immigration staff at our borders they will actually make the problem worse said mr blair. liberal democrat chairman matthew taylor said there needed to be a quick fair and firm asylum system. but he said it was absolutely disgusting to propose a system which could turn away genuine refugees. the conservatives say there is little risk of this happening as demand for asylum will be considered when quotas are set. in a speech in london on monday mr howard said: it s not racist as some people to claim to talk about controlling immigration far from it. he said that coming from an immigrant family himself he recognised that firm but fair immigration controls were essential for good community relations. - withdrawing from the 1951 united nations convention on refugees which obliges countries to accept people being persecuted on the basis of need not numbers - introduce laws to allow the immediate removal of asylum seekers whose claims were clearly unfounded because they came from safe countries or had destroyed documents - detain asylum seekers without documents so people whose identity was not known were not able to move freely around the uk - a worry for national security - stop considering asylum applications inside the uk and instead take people from united nations refugee agency camps. anyone applying for asylum would be taken to new centres close to their countries of origin. the tories also want quotas for those seeking work permits through an australian-style points system and those wanting to join families in the uk. mr howard said nearly 160 000 people were settling in the uk every year - the size of a city like peterborough. the plans would help achieve a substantial reduction in immigration he said although he could not predict a figure. he said that only two out of 10 asylum seekers had their claims accepted under the current unfair and inhumane system. we need to break the link between arriving in britain and claiming asylum mr howard said. by breaking that link we can smash the criminal gangs at the heart of the trade in people smuggling. but the un refugees agency is worried the policy sends the wrong message to poorer countries which receive the bulk of refugees. and a spokesman for european justice and home affairs commissioner franco frattini said the plans would contravene eu asylum policy which meant the uk could not simply refuse to hear an asylum case. refugee council chief executive maeve sherlock called the plans dangerous ill thought-out and hugely irresponsible . lives could be put at risk if refugees were turned away once the quotas were filled she warned. commission for racial equality chairman trevor phillips said asylum applications were down 40% and economic migration down about 10%. he did not think mr howard intended to centre the debate about race. but he warned that some campaigners could use his words to hint the policy was about keeping out people of a different colour or culture. mr howard called that suggestion disgraceful .
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brown to outline presidency goals next year will be make or break for development in poorer countries gordon brown will say as he sets out uk goals for its eu and g8 presidencies. the chancellor is due to outline a series of key targets the government will be judged on in 2005. they will include doubling aid from donor countries and eliminating debt owed by the poorest nations. mr brown also wants other g8 nations to match his target for overseas aid - spending 0.7% of national income. he also wants the richer countries to do more to help the development of vaccines for aids and malaria. the chancellor is travelling to america next week as part of his persuasion drive over the issue. he told bbc radio 4 s today programme: we need more resources allied to progress on trade and progress on debt relief if we are going to make an impact on the problems of ill health of illiteracy of poverty particularly in africa but right through the developing countries. his proposals were effectively a new marshall plan for the world including an international finance facility which would issue bonds in an attempt to double global aid cash to $100bn a year. agreement in the doha development talks could also give developing nations the trading ability they needed he argued. the european union s common agricultural policy had caused aggravated trade problems he said but there was now an agreement to end export subsidies. mr brown said much had been achieved on issues such as debt relief in the last seven years. but with 30 000 children were dying unnecessarily every day more was needed including 100% debt relief multilaterally. that is why next year is a test he said. if after five years of making promises the world is not prepared to honour them then people will be justified in saying they promised but they did not produce results. the catholic aid agency cafod will host mr brown s speech on wednesday. cafod wants britain to use its influence to pressure countries like the us to make firm commitments to tackle global poverty. mr brown said america too needed to take more action but defended president george bush for guaranteeing resources to countries which introduced reforms to tackle corruption. oxfam s paying the price report this week said 45 million children will die needlessly before 2015 and aid budgets are half their 1960 levels. the charity s director barbara stocking said: 2005 offers the chance for an historic breakthrough but unless world leaders act now the year will end in shameful failure. the report said the g8 of top industrialised nations had agreed in 1970 to spend 0.7% of their incomes on aid. but 34 years later none of the organisations members had reached this target and many had not yet set a timetable. mr blair who has described africa as a scar on the world s conscience has already said tackling world poverty would be one his g8 priorities along with climate change and the aids epidemic. but band aid founder bob geldof in july said he was sick of hearing guff about scars on the world. it was pathetic that britain was the 4th richest country in the world but only the 11th most generous aid donor he added. conservative shadow international development secretary alan duncan accused mr brown of missing his target on providing anti-retroviral drug treatment to three million africans by 2005. instead only 500 000 people would benefit he said. there s no point in him demanding praise and adulation for setting a whole new raft of targets when he has so woefully failed to meet the ones he already has added mr duncan.
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dvd copy protection strengthened dvds will be harder to copy thanks to new anti-piracy measures devised by copy protection firm macrovision. the pirated dvd market is enormous because current copy protection was hacked more than five years ago. macrovision says its new ripguard technology will thwart most but not all of the current dvd ripping (copying) programs used to pirate dvds. ripguard is designed to... reduce dvd ripping and the resulting supply of illegal peer to peer said the firm. macrovision said the new technology will work in nearly all current dvd players when applied to the discs but it did not specify how many machines could have a problem with ripguard. some bbc news website users have expressed concerns that the new technology will mean that dvds will not work on pcs running the operating system linux. the new technology will be welcomed by hollywood film studios which are increasingly relying on revenue from dvd sales. the film industry has stepped up efforts to fight dvd piracy in the last 12 months taking legal action against websites which offer pirated copies of dvd movies for download. ultimately we see ripguard dvd... evolving beyond anti-piracy and towards enablement of legitimate online transactions interoperability in tomorrow s digital home and the upcoming high-definition formats said steve weinstein executive vice president and general manager of macrovision s entertainment technologies group. macrovision said ripguard would also prevent against rent rip and return - where people would rent a dvd copy it and then return the original. ripguard is expected to be rolled out on dvds from the middle of 2005 the company said. the new system works specifically to block most ripping programs - if used those programs will now most likely crash the company said. macrovision has said that rip guard can be updated if hackers find a way around the new anti-copying measures.
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tech
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teens know little of politics teenagers questioned for a survey have shown little interest in politics - and have little knowledge. only a quarter of 14-16 year olds knew that labour was the government the tories were the official opposition and the lib dems were the third party. almost all could identify tony blair but only one in six knew who michael howard was and just one in 10 recognised charles kennedy. the icm survey interviewed 110 pupils for education watchdog ofsted. nearly half those pupils polled said it was not important for them to know more about what the political parties stand for. and 4% of those questioned thought the conservatives were in power - while 2% of them believed the lib dems were. the survey also looked at issues of nationality. it found the union flag and fish and chips topped the list of symbols and foods associated with being british. many of the pupils also looked on themselves as english scottish or welsh rather than british; while the notion of being european hardly occurred to anyone.
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politics
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cudicini misses carling cup final chelsea goalkeeper carlo cudicini will miss sunday s carling cup final after the club dropped their appeal against his red card against newcastle. the italian was sent off for bringing down shola ameobi in the final minute of sunday s match. blues boss jose mourinho had promised to pick cudicini for the final instead of first-choice keeper petr cech. the 31-year-old will now serve a one-match suspension commencing with immediate effect. cudicini kept a club record 24 clean sheets last season for chelsea but petr cech has established himself as first choice for mourinho since moving to stamford bridge in summer 2004. the 22-year-old czech republic international has set a new premiership record of 961 consecutive minutes without conceding a goal a mark which is still running. but mourinho has used cudicini regularly in the carling cup and the italian has only let in one goal in his four appearances during chelsea s run to the final.
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sport
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english clubs make euro history all four of england s champions league representatives have reached the knockout stages for the first time. arsenal and chelsea are seeded as group winners while runners-up manchester united and liverpool are not. rules stipulate that teams from the same country or group will be kept apart in the draw on 17 december. the favourites are chelsea and barcelona and real madrid the two milan sides juventus and bayern munich are among the 16 still in the hat. steven gerrard s last-gasp wonder-strike secured qualification for against olympiakos on wednesday evening. ac milan bayer leverkusen internazionale juventus lyon. who had already qualified fielded a second-string side and went down 3-0 to fenerbahce. ac milan bayer leverkusen internazionale juventus monaco. on tuesday finished top of their group with a 5-1 win over the rosenborg after drawing four of their first five matches. barcelona bayern munich porto real madrid werder bremen who had already qualified lost 2-1 to porto as jose mourinho made an unhappy return to his former club. barcelona bayern munich psv eindhoven real madrid werder bremen.
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more women turn to net security older people and women are increasingly taking charge of protecting home computers against malicious net attacks according to a two-year study. the number of women buying programs to protect pcs from virus spam and spyware attacks rose by 11.2% each year between 2002 and 2004. the study for net security firm preventon shows that security messages are reaching a diversity of surfers. it is thought that 40% of those buying home net security programs are retired. for the last three years that has gone up by an average of 13.2%. but more retired women (53%) were buying security software than retired men. the research reflects the changing stereotype and demographics of web users as well as growing awareness of the greater risks that high-speed broadband net connections can pose to surfers. the study predicts that 40% of all home pc net security buyers will be women in 2005. they could even overtake men as the main buyers by 2007 if current rates persist according to the research. i think older people have become more vigilant about protecting their pcs as we tend to be more cautious and want an insurance policy in case something does go wrong said one over-60 woman who took part in the research. you started off with young male stereotype computer users for last 10 years paul goosens head of preventon told the bbc news website. now we are seeing real people - both sexes and very often it is women who have more access at home. but net service providers still need to take more responsibility in making sure people are educated about net threats before they go online particuarly if they are new to broadband he said. programs also need to be tailored so that they can be installed by dial-up users with a slower connection too said mr goosens. security software should be easy to use with simple interfaces and instructions written in non-technical language he added. the nature of the security threats are also becoming more than just about e-mail viruses. high-profile complaints about rogue diallers and spyware or other programs that surreptitiously install themselves on computers have also raised awareness about the need to have a combination of anti-virus firewall and spyware-removal programs too. without protection these kinds of programs can be picked up just through surfing the web normally. more than 30 000 pcs a day globally are being recruited into networks that spread spam and viruses a study from security from symantec showed last year. viruses written to make headlines by infecting millions are also getting rarer according to net security experts. programs are being unleashed to directly profit criminal gangs many based in eastern europe over those which are designed to show off technical skills or cause nuisance. the research shows that more people are taking these criminal net threats more seriously because said mr goosens they are reported in the press much more. you are seeing older users being educated by the media and are seeing them picking up on this threat. they are asking the right questions he explained. it is more likely the younger users who naively assume that because they are using a reputable service provider that they are safe to connect to the net. an unprotected computer on a broadband connection can be breached and infected with viruses or spyware within minutes. by the end of the year it is thought that more than 30% of uk homes will have broadband net access. in july last year the number of uk households accessing the net via broadband surpassed those using dial-up for the first time according to the office of national statistics.
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tech
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sporting rivals go to extra time the current slew of sports games offers unparalleled opportunities for fans who like to emulate on-field action without ever moving from the couch. the two giants in the field - espn and ea sports - have been locked in a heavyweight battle for years. the latter is the world s largest games manufacturer. years of experience mean that the titles in their steady flow of sport sims are finely honed massively entertaining and ooze flair. sports broadcaster espn meanwhile has leant its name to a series of games that are similarly classy but lower in profile and price. but that status quo was changed forever - or for the next 15 years at least - by a deal earlier this year when espn sold ea the rights to its tv branding and on-air talent meaning the espn games presently developed by sega will have to come to and end in their present form. it was a massive-money deal that not only raised eyebrows but stirred active indignation in many quarters with fans concerned that it is set to enable ea to monopolise the sports gaming landscape to an unhealthy degree. some particularly disgruntled fans set up an online petition that notched more than 18 000 virtual signatures. many of those clicking to complain were already rankled for the espn coup happened just weeks after ea had pulled off another enormous licensing deal controversially giving them exclusive rights to teams and personnel from america¿s national football league (nfl). so will the sega - espn range be missed a key reason for answering yes is that liking or disliking a sports game regularly comes down to personal taste and having some options available always proves hugely handy. online soccer fans will testify to that between bouts of arguing over which high-profile title rules supreme out of the similar-yet-hugely-different fifa 2005 and pro evolution soccer 4. on the same note the espn 2k5 and ea sports games have so little to choose between them that picking favourites will come down to players personal preferences and spending budget rather than any technical elements. taking hockey and basketball as examples both publishers efforts are phenomenally entertaining and fairly accessible. they also both look awesome with the sega / espn versions perhaps shading things on a graphical front. in terms of gameplay i marginally preferred ea s nba live 2005 for basketball and was more satisfied ice hockey-wise by espn s nhl 2k5. the espn games are a touch more arcade-like in look and feel and are slightly easier to get into although like their rivals they also offer a dizzyingly-extensive array of in-game tricks and overall challenge modes that should be enough to quench thirsts of even the most die-hard of sports fans. perhaps the most interesting aspect of the espn deal will be seeing how it affects the presentation of ea s future titles. the front-end decoration of ea s games has become something of an art-form in itself loaded with slick visuals and oodles of licensed music. they are also immediately identifiable as coming from the ea stable and the inevitable compulsion to add an espn look will no doubt change that in various ways. what is a shame is that the espn titles took similar care about framing the gameplay with an authentic setting - their preambles look and sound much like they would on tv. they are neat and excellent-value games in their current form and combining them with ea s own established brand should produce a truly formidable beast.
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tech
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fockers keeps us box office lead film comedy meet the fockers sequel to meet the parents has topped the us box office for a third week. the movie which stars ben stiller robert de niro dustin hoffman and barbra streisand took $28.5m (£15.2m) making a total of 204.3m (£109m). michael keaton thriller white noise was second with $24m (£12.8m) despite negative reviews. martin scorsese s howard hughes biopic the aviator came third with $7.6m (£4m) and a total of $42.9m (£22.8m). children s adventure lemony snicket s a series of unfortunate events starring jim carrey and meryl streep fell two places to fourth position with $7.4m (£3.9m). it is also the ninth jim carrey film to hit the $100m (£53.2m) mark according to exhibitor relations. and fat albert a live-action adaptation of bill cosby s tv cartoon fell one place to number five with takings over the three days beginning on friday of $5m (£2.6m). ocean s twelve took sixth place in the us chart with $5.4m (£2.8m) but it led the non-us chart at the weekend according to hollywood reporter with an estimated $17.7m (£9.4m) and total takings of $137m (£73m). the incredibles took $300m (£160m) outside the us while meet the fockers topped box office charts in australia and mexico with non-us takings of $19.35m (£10.2m).
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entertainment
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applegate s charity show closes us musical sweet charity has cancelled its run on broadway after poor ticket sales for its early shows. star christina applegate had to pull out of pre-broadway performances earlier this month with a broken foot. producer barry weissler said he was deeply proud of the show but said the decision to close it was painful but fiscally responsible . applegate who starred in tv comedy married with children had been hoping to make her broadway debut in the show. the 33-year-old injured herself while performing in chicago and had been hoping to recover in time for its official new york opening on 21 april. she had received mixed reviews for performances in minneapolis and chicago. previews of the $7.5m (£4m) show were due to begin on 4 april. sweet charity tells the story of charity hope valentine a dancer who always falls in love with the wrong man. it was first performed on broadway in 1966 with gwen verdon in the title role while shirley maclaine starred in the 1969 film version.
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oil rebounds from weather effect oil prices recovered in asian trade on tuesday after falling in new york on milder winter weather across the us. with winter temperatures staying relatively high in the northern us a barrel of light crude ended monday down $1.33 to $42.12. however crude prices have rebounded in asia rising to $42.30 a barrel for february delivery. in london trading of brent crude was suspended for a public holiday but the price fell to $39.20 in the far east. with milder temperatures expected to continue in the northern parts of the us over the next few days at least analysts have said the price of oil may fall further - even if the decline was only temporary. weather has been the achilles heel of this market said abn amro analyst john brady. but it is winter in the northeast. eventually we ll get another cold blast. despite a fall of more than $12 a barrel from the record highs reached in late october the price of crude oil remains almost 30% higher than year-ago levels. prices rose last week after militant attacks in riyadh the capital of saudi arabia briefly renewed fears that the supply chain might be broken in the world s leading crude exporter. the market was panicked but fears essentially evaporated... since there was no follow-up said deborah white senior economist for energy at sg securities in paris.
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business
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christmas shoppers flock to tills shops all over the uk reported strong sales on the last saturday before christmas with some claiming record-breaking numbers of festive shoppers. a spokesman for manchester s trafford centre said it was the biggest christmas to date with sales up 5%. and the regent street association said shops in central london were also expecting the best christmas ever . that picture comes despite reports of disappointing festive sales in the last couple of weeks. the trafford centre spokeswoman said about 8 500 thousand vehicles had arrived at the centre on saturday before 1130 gmt. we predict that the next week will continue the same trend she added. it was a similar story at bluewater in kent. spokesman alan jones said he expected 150 000 shoppers to have visited by the end of saturday and a further 100 000 on sunday. our sales so far have been 2% up on the same time last year he said. we re very busy it s really strong and people will be shopping right up until christmas. over the christmas period we re expecting people to spend in excess of £200m at the centre. on saturday afternoon a spokeswoman for the st david s shopping centre in cardiff said it looked like being its busiest day of the year with about 200 000 shoppers expected to have visited by the close of play. at the st enoch s shopping centre in glasgow more than 140 000 shoppers - an all-time record - were expected to have passed through the doors by its closing time of 1900 gmt. senior business manager jon walton said: it has been phenomenal - absolutely mobbed. every week footfall has been showing strong growth and at the weekends it has been going mad. regent street association director annie walker said on saturday: the stores were heaving today and a lot of people are going to be doing last minute shopping as many people finished work on friday and can go in the week. she said reports of a slump in pre-christmas sales were related to the growing popularity of internet sales. i do think this has had a lot to do with reports of lower sales figures she said. internet shopping has gone up enormously and not all stores have websites.
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business
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tautou to star in da vinci film french actress audrey tautou star of hit film amelie will play the female lead in the film adaptation of the da vinci code it has been reported. the movie version of dan brown s best-selling novel is being directed by ron howard and also stars tom hanks. tautou will play hanks code-cracking partner according to various newspapers. she is currently starring in a very long engagement directed by jean-pierre jeunet. jeunet was also responsible for directing tautou in amelie in 2001 which launched the actress into the mainstream. she also starred as the lead role in critically-acclaimed film dirty pretty things in 2002. oscar-winning director ron howard chose tautou for the part preferring a french actress to a big name hollywood star. uk actress kate beckinsale had been widely tipped as a possibility for the role alongside vanessa paradis and juliette binoche. the thriller upon which the movie is based has sold more than 17 million copies and is centred on a global conspiracy surrounding the holy grail mythology. the louvre museum scene of the gruesome murder at the beginning of the novel recently gave permission for filming to take place there showbusiness newspaper variety reported. the $100m movie will be produced by columbia/sony pictures and is due for release on may 19 2006 in the united states and france.
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entertainment
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online games play with politics after bubbling under for some time online games broke through onto the political arena in 2004. the us presidential election provided a showcase for many aimed at talking directly to a generation that has grown up with joysticks and gamepads. experts say this reflects how video games are becoming a mainstream part of culture and society. the first official political campaign game was technically launched during the last week of 2003: the iowa game commissioned by the democrat hopeful howard dean. more than 20 followed suit including frontrunner elections president forever and the political machine which allowed players to run an entire presidential campaign including having to cope with the media. others helped raise the stakes during the bush/kerry contest by highlighting a candidate s virtues or his vices. the phenomenon has astonished the forefathers of political games a handful of multi-discipline games enthusiasts keen to push frontiers. when i started researching political games at the university about five years ago i thought it was going to be something that would take decades to happen said gonzalo frasca computer games specialist at the information technology university of copenhagen. i must admit that i was the first person to be surprised at seeing how fast they have evolved added the uruguayan-born researcher who has so far created games for two political campaigns. many artists and designers are experimenting with this form of gaming with an agenda in projects such as newsgaming.com. the aim is to comment on international news events via games. the ability of games to simulate reality makes them a powerful modelling tool to interact with actual situations in an original way. video games generate strong reactions mainly because they are new but also because our culture needs to learn how to deal with simulation mr frasca told the bbc news website. this was the case with the one he created for a political party in uruguay cambiemos an online puzzle game that offered a view on how the country s problems could be solved by working together. it s up to us to explore what we can learn from ourselves through play and video games. ultimately dr frasca sees games as a small laboratory where we can play with our hopes fears and beliefs. children learn a lot about the world through play. there is no reason why we adults should stop doing it as we grow up. but experts estimate it will still take at least about a decade until this new breed of video gaming communication become a common tool for political campaigns. this is hardly surprising compared to other forms of mass media like the worldwide web. only a few years ago most politicians did not have a webpage while now it is almost a must-have. dr frasca said: political campaigns will continue to experiment with video games. they represent a new tool of communication that can reach a younger audience in a language that can clearly speak to them. it will not replace other forms of political propaganda but it will integrate itself on to the media ecology of political campaigns.
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tech
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wal-mart fights back at accusers two big us names have launched advertising campaigns to set the record straight about their products and corporate behaviour. the world s biggest retailer wal-mart took out more than 100 full page adverts in national newspapers. the group is trying to see off criticism over it pay deals benefits package and promotion strategy. meanwhile drugs group eli lilly is planning a campaign against false claims about its product prozac. wal-mart kicked off the battle with adverts in newspapers like the wall street journal using an open letter from company president lee scott saying it was time for the public to hear the unfiltered truth . there are lots of urban legends going around these days about wal-mart but facts are facts. wal-mart is good for consumers good for communities and good for the us economy mr scott said in a separate statement. its adverts - and a new website - outlined the group s plans to create more than 10 000 us jobs in 2005. wal-mart s average pay is almost twice the national minimum wage of $5.15 (£3.90) an hour while employees are offered health and life insurance company stock and a retirement plan the adverts say. unions accuse wal-mart of paying staff less than its rivals do with fewer benefits. in california the company is fighting opposition to new stores amid allegations it forces local competitors out of business. lawmakers in the state are also examining allegations that the firm burdens the state with an unfair proportion of employee health care costs. i think they are going to have a tough time suddenly overcoming the perceptions of some people said larry bevington chairman of save our community - a group fighting to prevent wal-mart opening a store in rosemead california. wal-mart is also fighting two lawsuits - one accusing it of discriminating against women and another alleging it discriminates against black employees. meanwhile eli lilly is launching a series of adverts in a dozen major newspapers to present what is says are the true facts about its anti-depressant drug prozac. the move is in response to a british medical journal article that claimed missing lilly documents linked prozac to suicide and violent behaviour. in the averts entitled an open letter from chief executive sidney taurel the company says the article continues to needlessly spread fear among patients who take prozac . it was simply wrong to suggest that information on prozac was missing or that important research data on the benefits and possible side effects of the drug were not available to doctors and regulators the letter added. eli lilly s chief medical officer alan breier said that the article was false and misleading as the documents it referred to were actually created by officials at the us food and drug administration (fda) and presented to an fda meeting in 1991. later fda medical advisors agreed the claims were based on faulty data and there was no increased risk of suicide.
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business
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mutu to hold talks with juventus disgraced former chelsea striker adrian mutu is to begin talks with juventus as he looks for a new club. mutu will be in our club s main stand to watch the match between juventus and fiorentina said a juventus official who declined to be named. then he will meet some important people of the club he added. mutu 25 sacked by chelsea and banned for seven months for taking cocaine is now represented by alessandro moggi son of juve manager luciano moggi. mutu banned by the english fa can resume playing next may. he is to undergo a drug education and rehabilitation programme. mutu wants to train with romanian side dinamo bucharest whilst serving his ban say the bucharest side.
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sport
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argentina venezuela in oil deal argentina and venezuela have extended a food-for-oil deal which helped the former to overcome a severe energy crisis last year. argentine president nestor kirchner and venezuelan president hugo chavez signed the deal in buenos aires on tuesday. last april argentina signed a $240m agreement to import venezuelan fuel in exchange for agricultural goods and this deal has now been extended. venezuela will now import cattle medicines and medical equipment. last year argentina s severe energy crisis forced president kirchner to suspend gas exports to chile. argentina fears that rising demand could spark another crisis and wants to prevent it by signing this deal. the two countries also formalised a co-operation deal between venezuelan energy firm pdvsa and argentina s enarsa. under this deal the argentine market will be opened to venezuelan investment. president chavez added that brazil s petrobras could join soon the co-operation deal. president chavez is an ardent promoter of the concept of a south american oil company which could include the state-owned companies of venezuela argentina brazil and bolivia. the two presidents also agreed to create television sur a latin american network of state-owned television channels.
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business
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job cuts false economy - tuc plans to shed 71 000 civil service jobs will prove to be a false economy that could hamper public sector reforms according to a tuc report. public and commercial services union members have already voted to strike over cuts for one day on 5 november. the tuc said cuts would deliver less than 6% of the £22bn ministers hope to save through efficiency reforms. general secretary brendan barber warned the costs could easily outweigh the benefits . the government s big boost to public spending is now showing results said mr barber. public services are improving but looking for simple savings through job cuts at this stage could be a false economy. they may shoot a tory fox but cutting thousands of civil service jobs will hit the morale and capabilities of the public servants expected to implement government reforms. the costs could easily outweigh the benefits. next friday s strike action by the pcs is the biggest in the civil service since 1993 hitting jobcentres benefit agencies pensions offices customs and driving tests. the union says it is concerned about pensions sick pay and forced relocation as well as the cut in jobs. last month it was announced that a total of 37 social security offices and jobcentres across the uk would close in the first wave of plans to shed civil service jobs. the number of civil servants in britain rose to more than 520 000 in april. other areas the strike will affect include passports museums and galleries libraries and health and safety inspections.
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politics
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keanu reeves given hollywood star actor keanu reeves best known for his role in the matrix movies has been awarded a star on the prestigious hollywood walk of fame. the 40-year-old attended the unveiling of the star with his mother patricia and thanked her for inspiring him to become an actor. when i was 15 years old i asked my mom if it was ok to be an actor reeves said. she said: whatever you want . his star is the 2 277th to be embedded in the pavement on hollywood boulevard. the actor who was born in the lebanese capital beirut also spoke of how he dropped out of school to pursue an acting career. hollywood was calling he said so i got in my car a 1969 british racing green volvo with holes in the floor and bricks holding up the seats. i was a young man full of hopes and dreams. reeves first found fame in the teen comedy bill and ted s excellent adventure and went on to combine such blockbusters as speed the devil s advocate and the matrix series with smaller films including my own private idaho. more recently he was seen in something s gotta give alongside jack nicholson and diane keaton. his next film the supernatural thriller constantine is released in the us later this month and opens in the uk in march.
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entertainment
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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.
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politics
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wales win in rome wales secured their first away win in the rbs six nations for nearly four years with a six-try victory in rome. tries from jonathan thomas tom shanklin and martyn williams gave the visitors a 19-5 half-time advantage. luciano orquera did reply with one for italy but second-half efforts from brent cockbain shane williams and robert sidoli sealed victory. fly-half stephen jones added four conversions as wales maintained their superb start to this year s tournament. starting full of confidence after their victory over england the visitors scored the opening try after just four minutes. diminutive wing shane williams fielded a kick ahead and danced past the onrushing andrea masi and aaron persico into the italian half. his pass to tom shanklin appeared forward but when the centre was held up short the ball was switched left and michael owen s long cut-out pass gave the lurking thomas an easy run-in. stephen jones who retained the kicking duties despite gavin henson s heroics against england slotted an excellent conversion from wide out. wales twice threatened further scores but failed to find the crucial pass and italy hit back out of the blue in the 11th minute. henson sporting gold boots rather than the silver variety that did for england beat two players with ease out on the left touchline. but his attempted chip ahead was charged down by orquera who snaffled the loose ball and hared away from halfway to score in the right corner. with the welsh line-out stuttering and italy twice turning the visitors scrum the home side s forward power brought them back into it. but a clever high kick from henson almost brought a try for hal luscombe when roland de marigny and ludovico nitoglia made a hash of claiming it as the ball bounced into touch. wales regained control with a second try in the 21st minute henson lobbing up a high kick to the left corner where shanklin jumped higher than nitoglia to dot down his 15th test try. jones was unable to convert and de marigny then hit the upright with a penalty attempt for italy. henson was also narrowly short with a long-range effort at goal but wales ended the half with a vital third score to give themselves some breathing space. henson sent luscombe streaking away and when he off-loaded to martyn williams the flanker showed his nous to ground the ball against the padding of the post jones adding the conversion. italy who lost flanker mauro bergamasco with a head knock before half-time built up a head of steam on the resumption. de marigny landed a penalty to make it 19-8 and a nitoglia break through the middle threatened a try only for the move to break down with a knock-on. but wales put the outcome beyond doubt with two superb tries in four minutes before the hour. their fourth after 53 minutes was sparked by another mazy run from shane williams who beat several players with ease and finished with a powerful angled run from lock cockbain. before italy could recover from that blow a strong surge from gareth thomas and great off-loads from martyn williams and replacement kevin morgan saw shane williams scamper over. with jones converting both for a 33-8 lead wales had the luxury of sending on five more replacements for the final quarter. the icing on the cake came with a sixth try after more superb support work shane williams and ceri sweeney combining to send sidoli over in the left corner. the only downside for wales was a hamstring injury suffered by luscombe. but after back-to-back wins at the start of the tournament for the first time in 11 years they will travel to paris in a fortnight looking like genuine contenders. r de marigny; mirco bergamasco w pozzebon a masi l nitoglia; l orquera a troncon; a lo cicero f ongaro m castrogiovanni s dellape m bortolami (capt) a persico mauro bergamasco s parisse. g intoppa s perugini ca del fava d dal maso p griffen m barbini kp robertson. g thomas (capt); h luscombe t shanklin g henson s williams; s jones d peel; g jenkins m davies a jones; b cockbain r sidoli; j thomas m williams m owen. r mcbryde j yapp i gough r sowden-taylor g cooper c sweeney k morgan. andrew cole (australia).
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immigration to be election issue immigration and asylum have normally been issues politicians from the big parties have tiptoed around at election time. but no longer. both labour and the tories have signalled their intention of making them central to their election campaigns. they have been struck by the level of concern amongst voters about the issues with internal surveys showing they have the potential to swing large numbers of votes. that was also true at the last general election and the issue did briefly become a campaigning issue. but it sparked the probably predictable furore with claims politicians were either stoking up xenophobia or alternatively running scared of addressing the problem. but this time around it looks set to be one of the core battlegrounds with both the big parties competing to set out tough policies. the tories are already committed to imposing annual limits on immigration with a quota for asylum seekers and with applications processed outside the uk. labour has already branded the proposal unworkable but party strategists have seen the tories seizing a poll advantage over the issue. now home secretary charles clarke has come up with alternative proposals for a points system to ensure only immigrants who can benefit the economy will be granted entry and to kick out more failed asylum seekers. that has been attacked by the tories as too little too late and for failing to tackle the key issue of the numbers entering the uk. the liberal democrats have not been drawn too deeply into the argument but have called for a europe-wide policy on immigration. but while all the parties appear to agree the time has come to properly debate and address the issue there are already signs they will run into precisely the same problems as before. former union leader sir bill morris has already accused both the big parties of engaging in a bidding war about who can be nastiest to asylum seekers . my concern is that whilst the labour party and the conservative party will take a constructive approach to the debate right-wing political parties picking up on statements like `burden to britain will exploit this and create a lot of fear and uncertainty . it is precisely that concern - and the possible suggestion the issue is playing to the far right s racist agenda - that will provoke strong reactions from many concerned with this issue. the challenge for the big parties is to ensure they can engage in the debate during the cut and thrust of a general election while also avoiding that trap.
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politics
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brookside actress keaveney dies actress anna keaveney who appeared in brookside my family and a touch of frost has died of lung cancer aged 55. keaveney who played brookside s marie jackson when the channel 4 soap began in 1982 died on saturday. born in runcorn cheshire she also starred in numerous films including 1989 s shirley valentine. she played nellie in mike leigh s latest film vera drake which won the golden lion prize for best film at this year s venice film festival. and most recently she appeared alongside richard wilson in itv s king of fridges and with martin clunes in doc martin. other tv appearances included the part of matron in itv drama footballers wives and a cameo role as tom farrell s mother sheila in bbc comedy gimme gimme gimme. keaveney s career also included stage performances in neaptide for the national theatre private lives and the rise and fall of little voice. the actress died in hospital. her agent barry brown said: anna was due to have had another operation on friday but unfortunately she was too weak.
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entertainment
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music man to the oscars bill conti s job of musical director of the oscars show is not for the faint-hearted since conducting the orchestra is the ultimate plate-spinning assignment. this year marks conti s 17th turn at the helm of the academy awards orchestra. the excitement is a live performance as a musician he says. all of your colleagues everyone in the film industry is in the theatre. all the important people. i guess it s just a television show but we always think it s a bit more. the orchestra strikes up more than 110 times during the average oscars show. as well as playing the presenters and winners on and off stage it also performs during the commercial breaks to entertain the live audience in the house. it s a very busy evening it takes a certain amount of preparation of music orchestrating sketching rehearsing before the show. but you don t know what the unexpected will be and as the musical director it s exciting explains conti. and much of the preparation goes into mastering scores that will never be performed. we don t know who the winners will be. so when they say the winner is we have five different pieces of music in front of us they say the name we play the appropriate one immediately adds conti. the orchestra is often called upon to play when the winners ramble on too long during their acceptance speeches despite being told to be brief by the show s producers. the decision to drown out or kill the offending star with music is relayed from the director s box to the orchestra via conti s earpiece. i don t feel good about it at all. it s not my call though he says. when the director says music the orchestra plays and he takes a long shot of the hall. we don t usually see the person speaking while his microphone is cut off. the person that s been cut off who s 10 feet from me is glaring at me like it s death time. on occasions some stars have taken it upon themselves to send a warning shot across the bows of the musical director before they start to speak. julia roberts when she came on she asked me to not get ready to play because she had so much to do he says. conti received an oscar in 1983 for the original score of the right stuff. he also received two nominations in the original song category in 1976 for gonna fly now from rocky and in 1981 for the title song from for your eyes only. it s a moment in the sun he says. when people get up there some people this is hard to believe people that spend their lives in front of the camera or audiences entertaining might get a little flustered. but there s this moment in time when the biggest award that they could possibly get in their life has been handed to them and they re either not in control or they want to thank everyone that they ever met. the image of the oscars telecast is one of slick presentation and smooth transitions between performances and the award categories. behind the scenes the key players such as conti have a bewildering array of technical props to deal with. there s a big script and video monitors you have to watch and there are also audio controls. i can control hearing in my ears the left ear or the right ear - different things at different times. i have to communicate with the director. i have a little microphone that s attached to my headset. to open up that microphone i have a footswitch he explains. conti s most nerve-wracking moment came during his first oscars show as musical director in 1977 when a member of the orchestra alerted him that they could smell smoke. conti immediately told the show s director: i start cursing and screaming i tell him we re not going to die for this show - you must do something or i m going to climb out of this pit with 60 musicians and we re going to be home in 10 minutes. oh no bill don t do anything came the response. imagine these elegantly dressed ladies and gentlemen of the orchestra 60 or so of them in the pit and while we re playing firemen with their helmets and their hatchets crawling among us trying to find the reason for the smoke. the smell turned out to be new paint smouldering on the music stands. no one died it s not a big story but it was scary at the time laughs conti. when the ceremony is over the music director attends the annual governor s ball with his family. i have a drink and relive the show he says. i m not for too much carousing. i go home and unwind. it takes me about a day.
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entertainment
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lib dems unveil women s manifesto the liberal democrats are attempting to woo female voters with the launch of their manifesto for women. charles kennedy is pledging a maternity income guarantee and a pension system based on years of residence rather than national insurance payments. he also thinks women will back plans to end university tuition fees and for free long-term care for the elderly. both labour and the conservatives have said they also plan to boost pensions and to improve childcare support. mr kennedy says he wants to deal with policy areas that disadvantage women. two million pensioners in britain currently live below the government s own poverty line - two-thirds of whom are women he said. he says that pensions based on the number of years worked ignore the contribution women make caring for children. the lib dem s citizen s pension based on length of residency not on national insurance contributions would address that imbalance mr kennedy argues. under the package new mothers would be offered minimum guaranteed maternity pay of £170 a week for the first six months after the birth of their first child. mr kennedy also believes the party s plans to use the money saved from not introducing illiberal id cards to boost police numbers by 10 000 would appeal to women too. the policies are not new announcements but the way they are structured as a package to appeal to women is. mr kennedy also points to the fact that 40% of the party s candidates set to stand in winnable or target seats are women. party strategists claim that where women candidates replace men turnout rises by 4%. mr kennedy began the pitch for female support with an interview on bbc radio 4 s women s hour on monday. during the interview mr kennedy revealed that he planned to structure the party s general election campaign around the birth of his first child which is expected in april. the baby and his wife sarah would be priority number one even if it arrived in the middle of the election campaign he said. party strategists believe winning over a significant proportion of women voters is key to electoral success. a party spokesman said it was courting female votes because they tended to vote more than men and are believed to be more considered and open-minded in deciding who they vote for. labour s deputy minister for women jacqui smith accused the lib dems of offering false promises to women and said their sums did not add up. she said: these proposals would increase the costs to the public purse drastically year on year and hard working families will pay dearly through either increased taxes or reduced spending on public services . the labour party has committed itself to universal affordable and flexible childcare for parents of all 3 to 14 year-olds including childcare centred on schools to be available from 8am to 6pm. in september trade and industry secretary patricia hewitt said she would like to see longer paid maternity leave higher paternity pay and the extension of flexible working rights to carers if labour won a third term. the conservatives are yet to unveil their manifesto plans for childcare but said in november they would increase maternity pay and pay the child tax credit in cash to parents to spend as they like on a nanny au pair or even a family member such as a grandparent acting as a carer. they were also consulting on making childcare costs tax deductible.
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politics
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robben and cole earn chelsea win cheslea salvaged a win against a battling portsmouth side just as it looked like the premiership leaders would have to settle for a point. arjen robben curled in a late deflected left-footed shot from the right side of pompey s box to break the home side s brave resistance. chelsea had been continually frustrated but joe cole added a second with a 20-yard shot in injury-time. nigel quashie had pompey s best chance when his effort was tipped over. the fratton park crowd were in good voice as usual and even though portsmouth more than held their own chelsea still managed to carve out two early chances. striker didier drogba snapped in an angled shot to force home keeper shaka hislop into a smart save while an unmarked frank lampard had a strike blocked by arjan de zeeuw. but pompey chased harried and unsettled a chelsea side as the south-coast side started to gain the upper hand and almost took the lead through quashie. the midfielder struck a swerving long range shot which keeper petr cech tipped over at full stretch. pompey stretched arsenal to the limit recently and were providing a similarly tough obstacle to overcome for a chelsea team struggling to exert any pressure. velimir zajec s players stood firm as the visitors came out in lively fashion after the break but just as they took a stranglehold of the match the visitors launched a counter-attack. drogba spun to get a sight of goal and struck a fierce shot which rocked keeper hislop back as he blocked before arjan de zeeuw cleared the danger. the home side were also left breathing a sigh of relief when a glen johnson header fell to gudjohnsen who had his back to goal in a crowded pompey goalmouth. the icelandic forward tried to acrobatically direct the ball into goal but put his effort over. but just like against arsenal portsmouth let in a late goal when robben s shot took a deflection off matthew taylor on its way past a wrong-footed hislop. and cole put a bit of gloss on a hard-fought win when he put a low shot into the bottom of the pompey net. hislop griffin primus de zeeuw taylor stone (cisse 76) quashie (berkovic 83) faye o neil kamara (fuller 65) yakubu. subs not used: berger ashdown. kamara. cech paulo ferreira gallas terry johnson duff makelele smertin (cole 73) lampard robben (geremi 81) drogba (gudjohnsen 58). subs not used: cudicini bridge. paulo ferreira robben lampard. robben 79 cole 90. 20 210 a wiley (staffordshire).
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business fears over sluggish eu economy as european leaders gather in rome on friday to sign the new eu constitution many companies will be focusing on matters much closer to home - namely how to stay in business. lille is a popular tourist destination for britons who want a taste of france at the weekend. but how many tourists look at the impressively grand victorian chambre de commerce which stands beside the opera house and consider that it was built - like the town halls in many northern english towns - on the wealth created by coal steel and textiles like northern england and industrial scotland those industries have been in long term decline - the last coal pit closed in 1990. beck-crespel is a specialist steel firm in armentieres about 20 miles from lille. the company has not laid off a worker since 1945. it specialises in making bolts and fixings for power stations and the oil industry but not many of those are being built in europe these days. director hugues charbonnier says he is under pressure because factories in the far east are able to make some of his output more cheaply while his key markets are now in china and india. in our business the market is absolutely global you can not imagine living with our size (of business) even within an enlarged european union (if we did that) we would need not 350 people but perhaps just 150 or 200 he says. it isn t just globalisation that is hurting; the law in france means workers are paid for a 39 hour week even though they work just 35 hours. but at least there is still a steel industry. coal has now totally vanished and textiles are struggling. new business has been attracted but not enough to make up the difference. that is one reason why people here are not great fans of the eu says frederic sawicki a politics lecturer at the university of lille. in the region today the unemployment rate is 12% in some areas it is 15%. they don t see what europe is doing for them so there is a kind of euro scepticism especially in the working classes he says. which is strange because lille is at the crossroads of europe - if anywhere should be benefiting from the euro it is here. the euro was designed to increase trade within the eurozone but the biggest increase in trade has been with the rest of the world. much of that trade passes through the world s largest port rotterdam in holland home to specialist crane maker huisman itrec. its cranes help build oil rigs and lifted the sunken russian submarine kursk from the sea bed but huisman itrec is now setting up a factory in china where costs are cheaper and its main customers are closer. boss henk addink blames the low growth rate in europe for the lack of orders closer to home. in the us growth is something like 6% in china they are estimating 15% and in the eu it is more or less 1% he says. mr addink blames the euro for stifling demand. he much preferred the old currencies of europe which moved in relation to each country s economic performance. in germany industry is exporting more these days but the economy as a whole is once again mired in slow growth and high unemployment. growth is likely to peak this year at just under 2%. in britain that would be a bad year; in germany it is one of the best in recent years. with germany making up a third of the eurozone s economy this is a major problem. if germany doesn t once again become the powerhouse of europe growth across the bloc is never going to be as strong as it could be. however at one factory near the dutch border things are changing. the siemens plant at boscholt makes cordless phones and employs 2 000 staff. staff have started working an extra four hours a week for no extra pay after siemens threatened to take the factory and their jobs to hungary. factory manager herbert stueker says that he now hopes to increase productivity by nearly 30% . but germany needs much more reform if all its industry is to compete with places such hungary or china. the government is reforming the labour market and cutting the generous unemployment system but the real solution is to cut the wages of low skilled workers says helmut schneider director of the institute for the study of labour at bonn university. labour is too costly in germany especially for the low skilled labour and this is the main problem. if we could solve that problem we could cut unemployment by half he says. the eu set itself the target of being the most efficient economy in the world by 2010. four years into that process and the target seems further away than ever.
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business
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takeover rumour lifts exel shares shares in storage and delivery firm exel closed up 9% at a two-and-a-half year high on tuesday on speculation it is to receive an imminent takeover bid. the talk in the city is that us giant united parcel services (ups) is the most likely bidder for the firm. yet other names mentioned in connection to buying exel are dhl-owner deutsche post and finance firm ge capital. with its shares closing tuesday at 873p bracknell-based exel is currently valued at £2.6bn ($6.3bn). exel employs 109 000 people in more than 120 countries and has itself been active in the consolidation of the logistics sector paying £328m to buy fellow uk firm tibbett & britten last august. its customers include boots burberry mothercare and consumer products giant procter & gamble. andrew beh of brokers ing said ups and deutsche post were the most likely bidders and an offer of 950p a share would be fair if a bidding battle did not break out. it s a great strategic fit for both companies he said. both are interested in expanding in logistics and you can make a decent case for cost synergies which could justify the premium and that s before you make any argument about revenue synergies.
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business
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us data sparks inflation worries wholesale prices in the us rose at the fastest rate in more than six years in january according to government data. new figures show the labor department producer price index (ppi) rose by 0.3% - in line with forecasts. but core producer prices which exclude food and energy costs surged by 0.8% the biggest rise since december 1998 increasing inflationary concerns. in contrast the university of michigan barometer of us retail consumer confidence showed a slight dip. the university s index of consumer spending fell to 94.2 in early february from 95.5 in january which could indicate a fall in retail spending by the us public. the mixed set of data on friday led to volatile early wall street trade as the dow jones standard and poor s 500 and nasdaq swung between positive and negative territory. the economic figures come on the back of increased fears that the federal reserve chairman may be about to raise interest rates in order to stifle any inflationary pressures. the fed has been raising interest rates at a gradual pace since june 2004 in an attempt to make sure inflation does not get out of control. mr greenspan told congress this week that the central bank was on guard against the possibility that a rebounding economy could trigger stronger inflation pressures. the ppi would argue for greenspan to continue to raise rates at a measured pace said joe quinlan chief market stategist at bank of america capital management. but this michigan survey tells you that the consumer might be downshifting a little bit in terms of their confidence and their spending; this could be an indication of that. consumer spending accounts for 66% of us economic activity and is viewed as a gauge of the health of the economy which is why the michigan data is closely observed. however on friday it was overshadowed by the core ppi core figure which surged 2.7% during the past 12 months the biggest year-on-year gain in nine years. the concern is that traders might interpret this big jump in the core ppi as an impetus for the fed to be more aggressive than a measured move in moving rates said paul cherney chief market analyst at standard & poor s. but ian shepherdson chief us economist at high frequency economics said the ppi report was much less alarming than at first glance. one-time increases in alcohol and tobacco prices which are no indication of broad ppi pressure were responsible for the increase he said. prices for autos and trucks also jumped in january but shepherdson said it is a good bet these increases won t stick .
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byrds producer melcher dies at 62 record producer terry melcher who was behind hits by the byrds ry cooder and the beach boys has died aged 62. the son of actress doris day he helped write kokomo for the beach boys which was used in the movie cocktail earning a 1988 golden globe nomination. he also produced mr tambourine man for the byrds as well as other his such as turn turn turn. melcher died on friday night at his home in beverly hills california after a long battle with skin cancer. he joined columbia records as a producer in the mid-1960s and also worked with gram parsons and the mamas and the papas. earlier in his career melcher had hits as part of duo called bruce & terry with future beach boy bruce johnston which evolved into the rip chords group. melcher also worked closely with his mother producing the doris day show and helping to run her charitable activities. in 1969 his name became linked with the charles manson murders which saw the deaths of actress sharon tate and four of her friends at a home which melcher once rented. rumours circulated that melcher - who knew manson - was the killer s real target because he had turned him down for a record contract. but los angeles police discounted the rumours pointing out melcher had moved to malibu and manson knew of his new address.
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entertainment
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insurance bosses plead guilty another three us insurance executives have pleaded guilty to fraud charges stemming from an ongoing investigation into industry malpractice. two executives from american international group (aig) and one from marsh & mclennan were the latest. the investigation by new york attorney general eliot spitzer has now obtained nine guilty pleas. the highest ranking executive pleading guilty on tuesday was former marsh senior vice president joshua bewlay. he admitted one felony count of scheming to defraud and faces up to four years in prison. a marsh spokeswoman said mr bewlay was no longer with the company. mr spitzer s investigation of the us insurance industry looked at whether companies rigged bids and fixed prices. last month marsh agreed to pay $850m (£415m) to settle a lawsuit filed by mr spitzer but under the settlement it neither admits nor denies the allegations .
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business
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tomlinson stays focused on europe long jumper chris tomlinson has cut his schedule to ensure he is fully fit for the european indoor championships. the 23-year-old has a minor injury and has pulled out of international meets in madrid and lievin this week as well as warm-weather training in lanzarote. it s nothing serious said his coach peter stanley. he strained a muscle in his abdomen at the birmingham meeting but is back in full training. sprinter mark lewis-francis will also not compete in madrid on thursday. the birmingham athlete who clocked a season s best of 6.61 seconds over 60m in birmingham last week also prefers to focus his attentions on next month s european indoor championships. lewis-francis who was runner-up to british team-mate jason gardener at the europeans three years ago will continue his training at home. meanwhile tomlinson is still searching for this first major medal and this season he has shown he could be in the sort of form to grab a spot on the podium in madrid. the middlesbrough athlete jumped a season s best of 7.95m at the birmingham grand prix - good enough to push world indoor champion savante stringfellow into second.
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foxx and swank win us awards jamie foxx and hilary swank have won the screen actors guild awards for best male and female film actors boosting their oscars hopes this month. foxx s portrayal of late soul-singer ray charles in ray had already earned him a prestigious golden globe award. swank triumphed for playing a gutsy female boxer in million dollar baby. modest wine country comedy sideways knocked out favourites million dollar baby and the aviator by taking the top prize for best cast performance. the screen actors guild (sag) represents us film and tv actors. its winners often go on to win oscars. in other nominations cate blanchett triumphed as the best supporting actress for her role as katharine hepburn in the aviator. veteran actor morgan freeman took the best supporting actor award for playing a prize-fighter turned gym manager in million dollar baby. thank you for ray charles for just living so complex and so interesting and making us all just come together said foxx accepting his award in los angeles on saturday. he also praised the film director: thank you for taylor hackford for taking a chance with an african-american film. taylor you re my director of the year. swank too was full of praise for her director and co-star clint eastwood. i bow down to you swank said to the 74-year-old eastwood. you are a talent beyond compare. if i m half the person you are and half the talent you are when i m 74 i will know that i ve accomplished something great. both foxx and swank are now considered to be among the favourites to get oscars - the hollywood s ultimate prize. however swank has to overcome a strong challenge from annette bening a nominee for the theatre farce being julia. meanwhile ballots for oscars - the hollywood s top honours - were mailed earlier this week to members of the academy of motion picture arts and sciences. the voting is due to end on 22 february - five days before the ceremony.
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go-ahead for new internet names the internet could soon have two new domain names aimed at mobile services and the jobs market. the internet corporation for assigned names and numbers (icann) has given preliminary approval to two new addresses - .mobi and .jobs. they are among 10 new names being considered by the net s oversight body. others include a domain for pornography an anti-spam domain as well as .post and .travel for the postal and travel industries. the .mobi domain would be aimed at websites and other services that work specifically around mobile phones while the .jobs address could be used by companies wanting a dedicated site for job postings. the process to see the new domain names go live in cyberspace could take months and icann officials warned that there were no guarantees they would ultimately be accepted. applicants paid £23 000 apiece to have their proposals considered. the application for .mobi was sponsored by technology firms including nokia microsoft and t-mobile. of the 10 currently under consideration the least likely to win approval is the .xxx domain for pornographic websites. there are currently around 250 domain names in use around the globe mostly for specific countries such as .fr for france and .uk for britain. perhaps unsurprisingly .com remains the most popular address on the web.
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tech
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boeing secures giant japan order boeing is to supply japan airlines with up to 50 of its forthcoming 7e7 planes in a deal that could be worth as much as $6bn (£3.1bn) for the us giant. japan airlines has made a firm order for 30 of the aircraft at $120m each with the option to buy 20 more. asia s biggest airline joins japanese rival all nippon as one of the first carriers to order the mid-size 7e7 which boeing says is super-economical. airbus this week announced the first pre-sale of its 7e7 rival - the a350. boeing s great european competitor is to sell 10 of its forthcoming a350 to spanish carrier air europe which has the option to buy two more in a deal that could be worth more than $1.8bn. both the 7e7 and the a350 are being designed to be as fuel-efficient as possible in the 200- to 300-seat sector and each will be available in both short and long range versions. japan airlines said it had looked at both aircraft before choosing the 7e7 also known as the dreamliner. we chose the 7e7 after carefully considering both it and airbus aircraft said a japan airlines spokesman. the 7e7 fits better for what we needed and it could be delivered when we hoped to get it. boeing continues to enjoy a dominance over airbus in japan and japanese companies are taking key roles in building the 7e7. the first 7e7s will be delivered to japan airlines in april 2008. boeing has set itself a target of getting 200 firm commitments for the 7e7 by the end of this year and has orders for 56 so far. airbus hopes to have 50 orders in place for the a350 by mid-2005.
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moya emotional after davis cup win carlos moya described spain s davis cup victory as the highlight of his career after he beat andy roddick to end the usa s challenge in seville. moya made up for missing spain s 2000 victory through injury by beating roddick 6-2 7-6 (7-1) 7-6 (7-5) to give the hosts an unassailable 3-1 lead. i have woken up so many nights dreaming of this day said moya. all my energy has been focused on today. what i have lived today i do not think i will live again. spain s only other davis cup title came two years ago in valencia when they beat australia. and moya nicknamed charly admitted: the davis cup is my dream and i was a bit nervous at the outset. some people have said that i am obsessed but i think that it is better this way. it helps me reach my goals if i am obsessed. it s really incredible - to get the winning point is really something. spanish captain jordi arrese said: charly played a great game. it was his opportunity and he hasn t let us down. he had lost three times to roddick and this was his day to beat him. he had been waiting years to be in this position. spain s victory was also remarkable for the performance of rafael nadal who beat roddick in the opening singles. aged 18 years and 185 days the mallorcan became the youngest player to win the davis cup. what a great way to finish the year said nadal afterwards. us coach patrick mcenroe wants roddick and the rest of his team to play more tennis on clay and hone their skills on the surface. i think it will help these guys even on slow hard courts to learn how to mix things up a little bit and to play a little bit smarter and tactically better. obviously it s unrealistic to say that we re going to just start playing constantly on clay with the schedule. but certainly i think we can put the work in at the appropriate time and play a couple more events and play against these guys who are the best on this stuff said mcenroe. roddick was left frustrated after losing both his singles on the slow clay of seville s olympic stadium. it s just tough because i felt like i was in it the whole time against one of the top three clay-courters in the world said the american. i had my chances and just didn t convert them. the bottom line is they were just better than us this weekend. they came out took care of business and they beat us. it s as simple as that.
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eurovision greats to do battle stars of the eurovision song contest from the show s 50-year history are to compete against each other to celebrate the contest s anniversary. viewers will choose 14 past songs to be performed by the original artists or others in the spirit of the originals. past eurovision performers include abba celine dion bucks fizz nana mouskouri lulu and julio iglesias. fans will then vote as usual to pick the all-time best eurovision song during the show in denmark in october. the first contest was organised by the european broadcasting union or ebu in 1956 and has become an annual event pitting pop giants against musical minnows - with often surprising results. while some regard it as an essential celebration of continental talent others see it as an equally unmissable parade of the reasons some countries do not normally produce international stars. the 50th annual contest will be held in kiev ukraine in may after ukrainian singer ruslana won last year. the 50th anniversary special will be held in denmark later this year because the danish broadcasting corporation came up with the idea for the all-time contest. a plan to hold it in london was scrapped because of problems finding a suitable venue. ireland has been the most successful country in the show s history with seven victories followed by the uk france and luxembourg with five each.
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entertainment
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lloyd s of london head chides fsa the head of lloyd s of london the insurance market has criticised britain s financial watchdog the financial services authority (fsa). in a speech on monday mr prettejohn urged the fsa to force brokers to disclose the size of their commissions. the fsa should change and change now said mr prettejohn who wants it to move from disclosure on request to mandatory disclosure. the call came in a speech on improving the london insurance market. the fsa should not bide their time and wait and see . they should seize the moment mr prettejohn lloyd s chief executive said. the fsa took over regulation of the general insurance sector in january but it sidestepped calls to require brokers to disclose the commissions they earn from insurers to their clients. last week the city watchdog gave brokers and insurers guidance on managing conflicts of interest. brokers must give information on their commissions if and only if their customers request it the fsa said. in the us lack of transparency about brokers commissions has led to problems. the world s biggest insurance broker marsh & mclennan said last week it would pay $850m to settle charges raised by new york attorney general eliot spitzer in october that it sought to rig bids in conjunction with insurers. the probe centred around so-called contingent commissions whereby brokers were rewarded according to how much business they brought to an insurer an arrangement that did not always benefit brokers customers. all of the insurance business written in the lloyd s market is placed via brokers.
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blair and brown criticised by mps labour mps have angrily criticised tony blair and gordon brown amid renewed reports of a rift between the two men. a meeting of the parliamentary labour party saw a succession of normally loyal members warn that feuding could jeopardise labour s election hopes. the pm insisted nothing would derail labour s campaign despite a new book saying he has upset his chancellor by backing out of a pledge to stand aside. mr brown will again be in the public eye at the party s new poster launch. in what the party had hoped would be perceived as a show of unity he is due to line up alongside alan milburn - the man controversially appointed as the party s election supremo - and deputy leader john prescott for the event in london on tuesday. relations between mr brown and mr milburn are widely reported to be cool ever since mr blair brought the latter back into the cabinet to run labour s election campaign a role successfully carried out by mr brown in both 1997 and 2001. mr blair told the parliamentary labour party on monday: 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. the prime minister and his chancellor arrived within seconds of each other for the meeting of the plp and were seemingly in good spirits as it started. new speculation about the state of their relationship was sparked by claims in brown s britain by sunday telegraph journalist robert peston which suggested mr blair went back on a pledge to make way for mr brown. labour s paul flynn said mr blair and mr brown had a scorching from mps adding: it was a parliamentary labour party meeting like no other. backbencher stephen pound said some mps had threatend to expose those fuelling the reports if mr blair and mr brown did not stop this nonsense this poisonous briefing . lord campbell-savours a former mp challenged mr brown to deny reports that he had told the prime minister he did not believe anything he said. mr prescott said mps were entitled to complain about discipline after reading recent press reports. they told us very clearly it was the troops telling the leaders: get in line he told bbc radio 4 s today on tuesday. mr prescott said there were occasional disagreements in any government. but he argued mr blair and mr brown could work successfully together and had produced a strong economy and better public services. 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. he had then changed his mind in june 2004 following intervention from cabinet allies and suspicion that the chancellor was manoeuvring against him writes mr peston. mr prescott said there was a dinner but the discussions were confidential. of course as a waiter for 10 years i have a professional ability here he joked. mr blair has insisted he has done no deals over the premiership while mr brown says he will not let gossip distract him from helping a unified election campaign. the conservatives say the two men are behaving like squabbling schoolboys and the liberal democrats claim personal ambition is obstructing good government.
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what the election should really be about a general election is the best chance most pressure groups get to make a real impact on government policy. here is how six leading lobbies plan to make sure their cause is being debated ahead of an expected spring poll. we ve called for the state pension to be increased from £79.60 to the pensioner credit guarantee level of £105.45. that s what we re calling for. many pensioners are disadvantaged by the current system. if we ve got one in five pensioners below the poverty line we ve got to make it more generous or have these people living in poverty. we ve drawn up a pensioners manifesto. this will be sent to each of the candidates in the 659 constituencies. they will be asked which of the top five issues including the pension issue they would support. once we ve got their responses we will publish the results within the constituencies and nationally as well. it s our way of putting the politicians on notice. we are trying to get across the fact that there are 11m voters over 60 in the country they are more likely to vote than other sections of society and thirdly they are true swing voters. before 1997 most pensioners voted conservative. in 1997 and 2001 they voted labour. but there is no guarantee they will vote for a labour government this time around. they cannot take that vote for granted. pensions generally will certainly be a big election issue even though the government has postponed the publication of adair turner s full report into the issue. he said the uk had one of the least generous pensions systems in the developed world. that the government takes seriously the impact of aviation on the environment. we haven t worked out specific plans but i imagine we will lobby political parties and incumbent mps. various local groups will do that in their particular areas and we will provide a national briefing. we don t have any large demonstrations planned but they can t be ruled out. it is hard to say whether we will be successful. we have got the issue in the public consciousness to an extent but it is difficult to say whether an election will raise its importance in the public mind or whether it will be pushed out by big issues like iraq. repealing the hunting bill. we are challenging the use of the parliament act 1949 in a high court action. we are hoping to hear in the new year. whichever way the court rules the other side will appeal so we expect it to fall plumb in electioneering time. when the ban comes into force on 18 february we will be going to the european court because no compensation is being paid. so there s a lot of legal territory to go. we are trying to engage with the ministers by demonstrating and talking. whatever intelligence we get we will try to turn up and speak to whoever it is. (rural affairs minister) alun michael has avoided us and cancelled engagements so that makes it difficult. it is not intimidatory - on the whole it is groups of angry housewives. of course there is an element of shouting because people are angry but there is no violence because that does not achieve anything. it will fall plumb in the run up to the most important general election tony blair will ever face. it s exactly what the prime minister did not want. he wanted the issue off the table until after the election. people using live animals as targets for sport both here and abroad. the reason for including abroad is because of trophy hunting. it is another sort of form of shooting for sport. the principle is the same whether it s a tiger or a pheasant. we will widely publicise what s happening in relation to trophy hunting. we will publicise the darker aspects of the target animal industry the uk. we will seek to get pledges from individual mps and would-be mps saying that they are against the use of animals as targets for sports. we would like the support of political parties but i think a general election is very much to do with pledges mps make to their electors. with hunting we had many mps who were happy to say they were against it. i think what we will get is a very real climbing up the agenda. whether or not we will get a ban i am not sure. but it will mobilise public opinion. everything we do will reduce animal suffering and in time that will lead to a ban. the issue that we think is the most important for this election is choice. the language of consumerism is very commonplace in government and across the political spectrum. choice as an ideology is beginning to be the privatisation of this decade. it s become an issue in itself but what s really missing from the debate is the consumer s choice in that. choice is not choice at all if all you have to choose from is two failing schools. we have seen so many pensions mis-selling scandals and in the pensions industry there s a maximum of choice but a minimum quality in that. we want choice on the consumer s terms - that means clear and accessible information to operate that choice. firstly we have our website. it features our campaigns and changes every day. secondly through our 700 000 members who communicate with us. thirdly through the media and also what we will be doing is holding a pre-election conference. we will invite the opinion formers mps journalists and others. the idea is that we open up communications between members of the public and the politicians. i think we will be successful. it s very much the language being used by the main political parties. politicians on all sides are very sensitive to this issue they want to be seen to be responding to this issue. fuel duty is a large part of operational costs for road haulage workers. we have been hearing about this proposed increase of 1.92p per litre that gordon brown has been postponing and postponing. tuppence does not sound like a great deal but every year if you operate one vehicle that s an increase of about £750. if you re running 10 vehicles it s obviously 10 times that. if fuel duty does rise we will be absolutely horrified. there will be a huge effect throughout the industry and i would not be surprised if you see widespread demonstrations. what it will mean is there will be a number of firms going out of business. we will continue to do what we have always done we keep the issue in the trade press. regrettably it s one of those stories that it is getting harder to get into the national press. whatever we do the public don t like lorries - they see us as a complaining minority. but they don t realise that when you see a car on the road it is probably going to work when you see a lorry it s already at work.
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schools to take part in mock poll record numbers of schools across the uk are to take part in a mock general election backed by the government. some 600 schools have already signed up for the y vote mock elections 2005 run by the hansard society and aimed at boosting interest in politics. pupils in the schools taking part will learn the skills of speech writers canvassers and political candidates. schools minister stephen twigg said engaging young people s interest was essential to the future of democracy. he added: said young people who are engaged and motivated by the political process are essential to the future health of our democracy. the mock elections initiative provides an opportunity for pupils to develop their own understanding of how the democratic process works and why it matters. by experiencing the election process first hand - from running a campaign to the declaration of the final result - we hope that young people will develop the enthusiasm to take part in the future. the hansard society the electoral commission and the department for education and skills are running the programme. pupils will stand as party candidates speech writers and canvassers. michael raftery project manager at the hansard society said: the y vote mock elections for schools mirror the excitement and buzz of a real election raising awareness of citizenship and the benefits of active democracy. the mock votes will take place around 5 may widely expected to be the date of the general election. information packs including ballot papers and manifesto guides with elections happening in early may were sent out to the 3 000 schools invited to take part.
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