Global Economics-11

Apple pushes anti-virus for Macs

The note about anti-virus was posted on 21 November

Apple has urged Mac owners to use anti-virus software.

In a note posted on its support site in late November, Apple said it wanted to "encourage" people to use anti-virus to stay safe online.

The move is widely seen as a response to the growing trend among cyber criminals of booby-trapping webpages that can catch out Mac users.

Before now Mac users have been largely free of the security problems that plague Microsoft's Windows.

Fresh threat

The support note recommends that Mac owners install one or more of three anti-virus products.

Advice on the site said: "Apple encourages the widespread use of multiple antivirus utilities so that virus programmers have more than one application to circumvent, thus making the whole virus writing process more difficult."

Apple recommended users try McAfee VirusScan, Symantec Norton Anti-Virus 11, or Intego VirusBarrier X5.

The vast majority of malicious programs circulating online are aimed at Microsoft's Windows, largely because the software is used by so many people.

A handful of viruses have been written that targets Mac's OSX, but most have been demonstration versions only and few have had any significant impact on Apple users.

One virus, known as AppleScript.THT, could take control of a Mac and grab screenshots or keystrokes.

However, in recent months, hi-tech criminals have signalled a change in tactics away from e-mail borne viruses. Instead, many are infiltrating popular webpages in a bid to infect the machine of any and every visitor.

Many seek to steal valuable information such as login names, passwords or game accounts instead of trying to install themselves on a machine.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7760344.stm>

How do you pay a pirate's ransom?

By Robyn Hunter BBC News

Pirates in Somalia are making a fortune by hijacking ships and demanding ransoms to set them and their crews free - one official estimates the total this year to be around $150m.

There are conflicting reports about how much they want for the Saudi oil tanker they seized last month, the Sirius Star, and its cargo of two million barrels of oil, but how do you negotiate and deliver a pirate ransom in the 21st Century?

The owner hires people to take the money... for the handover of the big bags of cash. Same like the movies. Fahid Hassan, Harardhere

From what can be gleaned - how the negotiations run their course and how the ransoms are paid - what goes on would be worthy of a Hollywood action movie script.

"No matter what process is taken, they always go through a middleman," advises BBC Somali service analyst Said Musa. "And trust is at the heart of everything."

Fahid Hassan, who has experience of the negotiations, says that after boarding the ship, the first step for the pirates is to make contact with its owners.

"All the important documents are there on the ship, so the pirates can know easily all the information they need," he says.

"The talks are by telephone, mostly satellite phone but sometimes even SMS/text messages are sent. The pirates do not negotiate themselves. They hire someone and often this person is a relative; someone they can trust."

See satellite images showing the hijacked super-tanker, Sirius Star Enlarge Image

"For the Sirius Star, there are two negotiators. Sometimes they are on the ship, sometimes they are in town. The negotiator must work and work and work to get the money which is a very difficult job. It is very difficult to please the owner and please the pirates," he adds.

"But once the money is delivered the negotiator gets a share, the same as a pirate. Everyone on the ship gets an equal share."

Mr Hassan says that in the past, the ransom was delivered by money transfer, but that now owners hire a third party to hand over the money directly.

"They come onto the ship or the pirates get onto their boat for the handover of the bags of cash," he says.

"The men who bring the money then go; they leave the ship to let the pirates count and check. Some of the pirates have counting machines and also machines to detect fake notes." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7752813.stm>

Coupon woes only part of digital TV concerns

01/11/2009 | 12:49 PM

WASHINGTON - In less than six weeks, the nation's television broadcasters are due to shut off their analog signals and begin transmitting in digital — potentially blacking out as many as 8 million U.S. households that rely on analog TV sets to pick up over-the-air channels.

That reality hit lawmakers and the incoming Obama administration this week after the Commerce Department ran out of money for coupons to subsidize digital converter boxes. Viewers who don't have cable or satellite service or a TV with a digital tuner will need the boxes to keep older analog sets working.

The coupon program funding shortfall was a key reason behind the Obama transition team's call for Congress to delay the Feb. 17 analog shutoff. Yet the problem with the subsidy program is just one of several hurdles that appear to be in the way of a smooth digital transition.

One potential pitfall is that many people who think they are prepared for the analog shutoff could lose some channels — or possibly even lose reception entirely — unless they purchase a new antenna.

That's because many stations will shift their broadcast footprints with the switch to digital by changing transmitter locations, antenna patterns or power levels.

The Federal Communications Commission has said 18 percent of the nation's full-power television stations will have a digital signal that reaches at least 2 percent fewer viewers than their current analog broadcasts. <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/143657/Coupon-woes-only-part-of-digital-TV-concerns>

Nigeria's gas profits 'up in smoke'

By Andrew Walker BBC News, Nigeria

Nigeria is the second largest flarer of gas in the world

The latest deadline set by the Nigerian government to stop flaring natural gas from oil wells in the Niger Delta has passed without stopping the flames, which campaigners say are poisoning local people.

"Sometimes you can't tell whether it's the dawn breaking or the flame," says activist Vivian Bellonwu, the frustration clear in her voice, after seeing nothing change despite the 1 January target.

"It's a history of shifting goal posts, missing deadline after deadline".

Everyone agrees gas flaring wastes billions of dollars in useful gas.

Campaigners say it causes huge environmental damage and according to doctors, it is responsible for causing chronic health problems among people who live in the Delta.

But the government and the oil companies are blaming each other.

"It's all insincerity from the government and the companies -they're destroying lives and livelihoods," says Mrs Bellonwu.

Blighted

Nigeria flares the second largest volume of gas of any producer, behind Russia.

GAS FLARING About 40% of Nigeria's gas is flared as it is produced Nigeria accounts for 12.5% of the world's gas flaring Flaring takes place from thousands of well heads in an area the size of Britain Source: NNPC, Shell

Communities who live near Nigeria's more than 1,000 onshore well heads are blighted by gas plumes that rise from the ground, spreading toxic smoke and chemicals over their farms.

Social Action, the organisation Mrs Bellonwu works for, has been representing the communities who live near the many gas flares that light up the watery marshland and mangrove swamps of the Delta.

"When you approach a gas flare, the first thing you notice is the heat, the villages around the flares are all very hot."

The flames also light up the sky 24 hours a day, and the noise that comes from them is a continuous roar like a jet aircraft taking off.

She says doctors have reported higher rates of cancer, children with asthma and a suggestion the burning gasses may be making residents infertile.

"The smoke in some places is overpowering. It can't be good."

Royal Dutch Shell, the largest operator of onshore wells, has not commented on the claims that gas flaring affects the health of local residents.

Not profitable

Nigeria's onshore oil production started in the 1950s.

As the oil comes up through the well head, it emerges with little bubbles of gas.

The operating companies, they are the operators, and clearly they have a responsibility to operate in an environmental way Odein Ajumogobia Minister of state for petroleum

But until the 1980s with no way to store or transport it, there was little market for natural gas produced in Nigeria.

The operating oil companies simply burned it off.

Since then the price of gas has risen, transportation techniques have developed and drilling technology has improved allowing more oil, and consequently more gas, to be drawn through a single well.

Now experts believe Nigeria is burning billions of dollars of gas from its aging wells, letting potential profits go up in smoke.

Even more ironically, campaigners say, the biggest need for that gas is in Nigeria.

Nigeria is in the grip of a power generation crisis and the gas that is being burned could go a long way towards providing the electricity the country desperately needs in order to develop its economy.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7820384.stm>

WB bars 2 RP firms, trader over road project corruption

01/15/2009 | 09:26 AM

MANILA, Philippines- Washington-based World Bank on Thursday announced the debarment of seven firms and one individual for engaging in alleged collusive practices under a major Bank-financed road projects in the Philippines.

Among the firms barred were two Filipino companies. A Filipino businessman was also blacklisted, WB said. Two of the debarments are permanent, the strongest possible sanction.

The debarments, which prevent the parties from bidding on future World Bank-financed contracts, either indefinitely or for the period of the sanctions listed below, result from an in-depth inquiry conducted by the World Bank’s Integrity Vice Presidency (INT). INT is responsible for investigating allegations of fraud and corruption in Bank-financed operations, the lender said in a statement posted at its website.

The INT investigation uncovered evidence of a major cartel involving local and international firms bidding on contracts under phase one of the Philippines National Roads Improvement and Management Program, known as NRIMP 1. INT closely analyzed the procurement process the firms participated in and conducted numerous interviews before closing the investigations and initiating sanctions proceedings against the entities.

As a result of swift action when suspicions of collusion in the bidding process were raised by the project team, the World Bank stopped an estimated $33 million from being awarded. No World Bank funds from the NRIMP 1 project were disbursed to the now-sanctioned firms. <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/144307/WB-bars-2-RP-firms-trader-over-road-project-corruption>

Ivorians hail first home-built buses

By John James BBC News, Abidjan

African bus commuters have different needs from Europeans, it is said

Commuters in Ivory Coast can now travel around town on the first ever buses designed for and built in the region.

The engineering arm of the national transport company, Sotra, decided it could save money and create a bus better suited to African conditions.

"We want the transfer of technology in Africa, and we want to build our own buses with our own specification," says Sotra's director Mamadou Coulibaly.

"In Europe the technology is very sophisticated with lots of electronic devices. In Africa we don't need this.

"We just need robust buses because our roads are not very well done like in Europe. This is an African design for Africa."

The first three buses hit the streets on Thursday, and more of the vehicles are rolling off the production line.

Squash

Public buses in Abidjan are extremely popular and are frequently tightly packed despite the sweltering heat and lack of air-conditioning.

It's not true that if you're in a civil war you can't do things because you see yourself that during the crisis we tried to build big projects Sotra's Mamadou Coulibaly

The new urban bus has fewer seats than a Western bus, meaning up to 100 people can be squeezed inside.

"I think it's a good thing. It'll help students to move about in more comfort," says Isaac Gueu, who is studying accountancy in Abidjan.

But not all bus users are in favour of this launch.

"If we import buses it's better because we already know their endurance, the pros and cons, so really, I'm a bit hesitant about making buses here," Ahmed Wague said.

The buses are designed and built in the main city of Abidjan on a chassis and engine base that is supplied in parts from European truck-maker Iveco.

What is intriguing is that almost all the work on this project was done while Ivory Coast has been in a political crisis prompted by the civil war.

Continental

In 2003, a year after the conflict started, Sotra started producing its own boat-buses which speed up and down the lagoon on which Abidjan is built.

"We tried to launch these projects because we can prepare for the post-crisis period by launching such projects," said Mr Coulibaly. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7829006.stm>

High hopes for Wedgwood in Jakarta

By Steve Jackson BBC World Service, Indonesia

The factory in Indonesia can produce up to seven million pieces a year

As administrators try to sell the company that owns two of the UK's most venerable brands, Wedgwood and Royal Doulton, one part of the business may have a more promising future - the firm's factory in Indonesia.

In a dusty town 80km (50 miles) outside the Indonesian capital Jakarta, 1,500 workers are employed in a clean modern factory producing Wedgwood and Royal Doulton bone china products.

They make between five and seven million pieces of tableware every year.

The staff may be Indonesian but the brands remain quintessentially British, with the huge kilns and the expertise having been sent over from the UK.

'British experience'

Alongside the rows of uniformed workers who decorate the china in painstaking detail, there are Indonesian designers charged with inventing new products.

One of them, Chris, has just joined the company.

He said: "I just came out of university so I needed men with experience to teach me with some pottery like this.

"Wedgwood and Royal Doulton are very old brands and very classic."

The out-sourcing of production to Indonesia - which began more than a decade ago - has always been a subject of controversy in Stoke-on-Trent, the city in the English Midlands that was once at the centre of a thriving pottery industry.

The factory in Jakarta employs around 1,500 workers

The placing of parent company Waterford Wedgwood into administration and the loss of hundreds of employees has rekindled some of the anger in Stoke-on-Trent, about jobs being moved abroad.

People inside the company say the Indonesian factory is likely to be one of the main attractions for potential buyers.

The factory has its own free health clinic, trade union building and canteen where the company provides its employees with one free meal a day.

It also has a football pitch on site and a mosque to allow the staff to come and pray while they are at work.

So what about the key issue of pay?

John Wright, the company's production director in Indonesia, said he thought they offered a good

deal.

"We certainly don't pay the highest wages in the area but the package that we've put together is a good package and I think that shows in the labour turnover and the attendance.

"Our labour turnover is less than one percent. Our absence rate is nearly one percent.

"Generally speaking it's a reasonable environment to work in," he said.

This is a little bit of Stoke-on-Trent living in Indonesia John Wright Production director Pottery production move talks Wedgwood in Indonesia pictures

Former Wedgwood employees in the UK say the Indonesian workers get around an eighth of the sum paid to their British counterparts.

The average Indonesian factory worker is paid around $100 (£67) a month.

Mr Wright said he was very sad about the decline of the British pottery industry - where he himself worked for many years - but he believed it was a fact of economic life.

"The UK factories undoubtedly have struggled against growing costs and you reach a point where everything has a value.

"There used to be 26 manufacturing sites in the UK and sadly as we sit here today there's probably going to be one or two left. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7835924.stm>

The New Kid on the Ward Round

By Dr Daniel Sokol and Dr Nneka Mokwunye

Sometimes medicine is not straightforward

In 1661, the Board of Directors at the Hôtel-Dieu hospital in Paris, concerned that their doctors were spending too much time with wealthy private patients, instructed the doctors to spend at least two hours a day on ward rounds.

Today, such rounds are a routine part of hospital life.

A medical team led by a senior doctor wanders from bed to bed, while a nurse or junior doctor presents each patient to the senior who then decides on their ongoing care.

Thus a junior doctor might present Mr Smith, who was admitted the day before with abdominal pain, and the senior doctor might decide to start the patient on intravenous fluids and list him for surgery.

Rounds are intimate and sometimes intimidating encounters between the patient and the clinical team.

Friends and relatives are usually asked to leave for the duration of the visit.

In leading hospitals in the US, the hallowed tradition of the ward round has been changing.

The private club, previously limited to the senior doctor and his entourage, has opened its doors to a new member: the clinical ethicist.

Preventive ethics

One hospital that routinely uses clinical ethicists on ward rounds is Washington Hospital Center (WHC) in Washington DC.

Dr Evan DeRenzo, one of the rounding ethicists at WHC, said: "Although the doctors were apprehensive at first they now find our input to ward rounds useful and are comfortable having us there."

Ethicists like Dr DeRenzo, who usually hold a PhD in bioethics rather than a medical degree, help anticipate or defuse potentially explosive situations that may arise in end-of-life care and other sensitive areas.

They can provide useful support to clinicians faced with ethically troubling cases and with worried, sometimes angry relatives.

Ward rounds tend to be highly technical, focusing on physiology and therapeutics.

The danger is that this emphasis on the clinical details may obscure the ethical aspects of the case.

The ethicist serves a preventive role, fostering communication of the ethical issues early on.

For cost-conscious hospital managers, preventive ethics can also save money. A single law suit avoided is worth the ethicist's weight in gold. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7785653.stm>

Iranian treasures bound for Britain

By John Wilson Presenter, Front Row

Shah Abbas was one of the formative figures in the creation of modern Iran

Across a conference table in an Iranian vice president's office, tea and sweet pastries are offered before cultural diplomacy.

An ancient clay cylinder, regarded by scholars as the world's first declaration of human rights, helps to seal a deal that could open a new diplomatic channel between Britain and Iran.

On the table is a symbol rarely seen in Tehran, unless it's being burned by protesters outside the British embassy. A mini Union Jack stands alongside an Iranian flag.

I'd been warned that, as a BBC journalist, I might not be welcomed into this Iranian government building in traffic-jammed downtown Tehran.

The launch of the BBC's Persia TV service has prompted a furious denouncement of British 'spies' in the country.

But as I've arrived in esteemed company, I'm waved through and - most surprisingly - offered a seat at the conference table.

On the table is a symbol rarely seen in Tehran, unless it's being burned by protesters outside the British embassy

To my left Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, whispers: "Well, that's a result."

Facing us on the Iranian side is a team led by a deputy vice-president.

Mr MacGregor's primary role is to secure the loan of artefacts, ornaments and Persian silk carpets for the British Museum's forthcoming exhibition Shah Abbas: The Remaking of Iran.

The third in a quartet of planned shows about great emperors, the exhibition will reveal how the roots of modern Iran can be traced back more than 400 years, to the reign of the greatest leader of the Safavid dynasty.

Jet set curator

Neil MacGregor has forged a role as Britain's cultural ambassador to the world.

He travelled to Beijing in 2005 with Tony Blair to sweet talk the Chinese into agreeing to the biggest ever overseas loan of Terracotta Warriors and other treasures from the court of Qin Shihuandi, the First Emperor.

When he returned to Beijing to sign the contract he arrived with a bottle of single malt Scotch and a DVD of Braveheart, having heard the Chinese culture minister was partial to a wee dram whilst watching Mel Gibson in a kilt.

The sweetener went down a treat.

Neil MacGregor's is a man of formidable energy and enthusiasm, power-napping his way around the world.

The Cyrus Cylinder, the world's first declaration of human rights

We had arrived in Tehran via a whistle-stop tour of Isfahan, a beautiful city whose bridges, palaces and mosques were thrown up in an a celebratory flurry by Shah Abbas.

We'd flown in from London overnight, arriving at 5am before hitting the desert road for a five hour drive to Isfahan. Cramped and awestruck by the sunrise over an Iranian wilderness, I didn't sleep a wink.

As I stumbled off the bus, Mr MacGregor bounded into Naghsh-e Jahan Square with boyish excitement, leading the way through the bazaar to the best coffee shop and hubble-bubble hangout in town.

He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the cultural history of the globe, casually peppering conversation with ancient dates and names and, by way of illustration, describing in loving detail artefacts from the British Museum collection.

One such object whose political and cultural significance resonates through history is the Cyrus Cylinder.

Created on the orders of Cyrus the Great, the Persian king who invaded Babylon and freed the people from slavery and tyranny, the clay object is a sort of 2,500-year-old Middle East roadmap.

The tiny cuneiform lettering records, in Babylonian, how every man, woman and child would now be free to practice their culture and religion.

The declaration, made in 539 BC, allowed the Jews, who'd been enslaved by Nebuchadnezzar after the destruction of Jerusalem, to return home. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7833000/7833651.stm>

Music industry scrambles for cash

By Ian Youngs Music reporter, BBC News, in Cannes

The entertainment industry says illegal file sharing costs it millions

The music business has finally come to terms with file-sharing, according to executives at the Midem conference in Cannes. But now they have a different problem.

Until recently, the music industry was in a blind panic about illegal peer-to-peer downloading.

Millions upon millions of fans are spreading music around the world, and the people who made and own it don't see a dime.

A vast 95% of all digital music comes from unlicensed sources, according to a recent estimate from the global trade body the IFPI.

But the blind panic now seems to have stopped.

The Recording Industry Association of America, which represents US labels, has traditionally been the most aggressive in chasing file-sharers.

But it has just announced that it will no longer sue suspected offenders.

Digital rights management (DRM) - the lock placed on a track to attempt to stop you from sharing it - was once the central tool in the fight against "piracy".

But now Apple is removing DRM from iTunes, the leading download store, marking a resounding defeat in that particular battle.

'Hottest currency'

The industry seems to have reached a conclusion that the strategies for fighting file-sharing will not work.

It is now a fact of life.

But now there is a new panic.

It's interesting to be in a business where there's no issue about creating demand for your product. The issue is finding a way to get paid for it Howie Singer, Warner Music

If we are not going to stop file-sharing, and with sales falling, the dilemma now goes "how do we make money now?"

That is the question dominating Midem, the main annual industry talking shop.

Howie Singer from Warner Music said his company wanted to see "compensation and not simply control".

"It's interesting to be in a business where there's no issue about creating demand for your product," he said. "The issue is finding a way to get paid for it."

That view was echoed by Marcel Engh from Sony Music Europe. "The good thing is we're sitting on the hottest currency in the digital age - music," he said.

"Lots of the web 2.0 destinations are driven by music - MySpace, YouTube, there are tons of those destinations. The bad news is it's damn hard to make money." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7837605.stm>

US hails its anti-terror technology

By Gordon Corera BBC News

The US says that its drone technology is rapidly advancing

The predator drone attack which killed two senior al-Qaeda operatives on New Year's day is the latest chapter in an intensive campaign by the US. Many in Washington believe it is having a significant impact on al-Qaeda and its ability to operate.

The two operatives killed in the most recent strike had both been wanted by the US for years.

"We believe strongly that Usama al-Kini and Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan are in fact dead," a US counter-terrorism official told the BBC.

Both Kenyans were listed on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist list for their role in the 1998 African Embassy bombings with a $5m reward on offer.

Al-Kini had moved from Africa to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region where by 2007 he had become director of operations for al-Qaeda in Pakistan.

'Intensifying campaign'

The CIA believes he played a key role in an unsuccessful attempt on the life of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007. She was later killed in a separate attack.

They also believe he was involved in the high-profile bombing of the Marriott hotel in Islamabad last year.

Swedan is said to have been al-Kini's top aide

The men were killed by an unmanned Predator drone carrying Hellfire missiles, the latest strike in an intensifying campaign with around two dozen such attacks since last summer.

According to analysts, the campaign is the result of the lower degree of certainty required to launch missiles, and a decision to increase the number of strikes and widen the target set of what can be hit.

But it also thought to be the product of new technology being employed.

Last year I visited Creech air force base in Nevada, where the military drones are controlled from. The CIA drones used in attacking high profile al-Qaeda targets are controlled from a separate location.

Inside a ground control station, we saw grainy pictures beamed back from Afghanistan of a Taleban compound which the drone was preparing to fire on.

The drones have highly advanced sensor balls hanging out of their underbelly which can beam back pictures as well as provide other forms of data.

There has been considerable speculation about whether the government in Islamabad has covertly agreed to allow the strikes to happen

The drones offer other unique advantages, according to Colonel Chris Chambliss, in their ability to stay over a target and watch for a longer period than a manned flight.

"The weapons are the same that we carry on manned platforms so it's not the weapons per se but it's the persistence," he told me. "It's what we call the unblinking eye."

Security analysts believe the US may also be using new technology to track al-Qaeda leaders.

Considerable investment has gone into a programme looking at "Clandestine Tagging Tracking and Locating" technologies.

These allow individuals to be invisibly tagged and tracked or located at great distance by unique identifiers.

Together with more traditional methods like human intelligence and the tracking of communications, these technologies are thought to have been employed aggressively against al-Qaeda.

Most individual leaders are largely replaceable for al-Qaeda, apart from perhaps one or two who have particular expertise in developing unconventional weapons - men such as Abu Khabab Al-Masri who was reportedly killed by a strike last year. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7821014.stm>

US firm files complaint about IBM

IBM is the world's largest technology services company

US computer company T3 Technologies has said it has filed a complaint against IBM with the European Commission.

It accuses IBM, the world's largest technology services company, of "abusing its monopoly power in the mainframe industry".

Mainframes are high-end computers used mainly by large organizations.

T3 said IBM had tied the sale of its operating system to its mainframe hardware. IBM declined to comment as it had not seen the complaint.

"As IBM has not seen any complaint it is inappropriate to comment on specifics relating thereto," a spokesman said.

T3 also contends that IBM withheld patent licences and certain intellectual property.

"Only IBM now offers IBM-compatible mainframes and... controls over 99% of all existing IBM-compatible mainframes in use today," T3 said in a statement on its website.

In 2007, US software firm Platform Solution filed a formal complain with the European Commission, accusing IBM of refusing to license third parties and refusing to supply interface information on mainframes.

But the case was dropped when PSI agreed to be bought by IBM. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7839423.stm>

Cleaner air 'adds months to life'

The study examined data from a 20-year period in 51 cities

Cuts in air pollution in US cities over recent decades have added an average of five months of life to their inhabitants, research suggests.

The New England Journal of Medicine study matched air pollution and life expectancy statistics from 51 cities between 1980 and 2000.

Scientists found people living 2.72 years longer by 2000 - 15% of which they attributed to falls in pollution.

Studies have found poor air quality can worsen lung and heart disease.

In the UK, official estimates have suggested that air pollution still reduces lifespan by an average of eight months, despite increases in air quality in recent years.

Not only are we getting cleaner air that improves our environment, but it is improving our public health Dr C. Arden Pope Study researcher

Meeting stricter emissions targets may reduce this burden by nearly a half, some experts have suggested.

The study, carried out between Brigham Young University and Harvard School of Public Health, used advanced statistical models to separate out the various other factors behind changes in life expectancy, such as smoking and wealth, as well as to account for migration to and from the cities studied.

The research focused on "PM 2.5" pollution - which measured levels of tiny particles with a diameter one-twentieth of the width of a human hair.

These fine particles can travel deeply into the lungs, and have been linked with the worsening of asthma and heart disease.

The researchers found that in those cities with the biggest shift from polluted to clean air, this had yielded an average of 10 more months lifespan to its residents.

For every decrease of 10 micrograms per cubic metre of particulate pollution, life expectancy increased by more than seven months.

In some of the previously heaviest-polluted cities, such as Pittsburgh and Buffalo, the fall was close to 14 micrograms per cubic metre. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7839336.stm>

Intel shedding up to 6,000 jobs

Intel has been hit by the global fall in computer spending

Chipmaker Intel is closing five plants in the US and Asia, with the loss of between 5,000 and 6,000 jobs, as it responds to falling computer sales.

The facilities to close are its factory in Santa Clara, California - its last in Silicon Valley - and sister sites in Oregon, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Intel said the two US factories were based on older microchip technology.

The announcement comes a week after Intel reported a 90% fall in profits for the last three months of 2008.

Intel's profit for the quarter totalled $234m (£160m), down from $2.3bn a year earlier.

In addition to falling computer sales, the firm said it was being affected by the growth in popularity of super-small laptops, known as "netbooks", as they use lower profit margin smaller and slower chips. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7844232.stm>

Heads condemn German school system

By Tristana Moore BBC News, Berlin

Teachers claim some schools are turning into ghettos

It is a desperate plea for help. Sixty-eight head teachers have written a letter to the authorities in the German capital complaining about the terrible state of their schools.

The teachers say they are facing worrying levels of violence, poor behaviour and disruption at schools in Berlin, and they claim that some schools are turning into ghettos for children with immigrant backgrounds.

In their letter, the teachers also criticise the authorities for failing to renovate old, dilapidated school buildings.

There has been a huge public outcry because the teachers who complained all work at schools in the heart of Berlin, in the district of Mitte, which is home to the German parliament.

The Gustav-Falke school, a state-run primary school in Berlin, is in urgent need of repair.

In the main hall, a big chunk of the ceiling has water damage and in the staircase, the walls are crumbling. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7844979.stm>

Malaysia bans foreign recruitment

The government is worried Malaysia may slip into recession

Malaysia has banned the hiring of new foreign workers in factories, shops and other services.

The government said the move was to protect its citizens from unemployment during the economic downturn.

It has also told employers that if they want to cut back their workforce they must sack foreign staff first.

Malaysia is a leading Asian importer of labour, with more than two million foreign workers - mostly from Indonesia and other South East Asian countries.

The first to be retrenched should be foreigners and not locals Syed Hamid Albar, Malaysian Home minister

The ban on new foreign workers is indefinite and will affect key manufacturing and services sectors which currently employ about half of Malaysia's foreign workforce.

Exemptions may be given to those working in highly skilled service industries and factories. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7844726.stm>

The lessons pilots can teach surgeons

By Jane Elliott Health reporter, BBC News

At the end of each flight, they talk briefly about what went right, what went wrong and what could be done better.

Pilots say this brief and debrief system has reduced errors and made flying safer, and a growing number of NHS medics think this system should be adapted - to make surgery safer.

Avoiding errors

A report by researchers at the University of York claims that accidents, errors and mishaps in hospital affect as many as one in 10 in-patients - but that up to half of these were preventable.

Britannica reaches out to the web

The machine debuted in 1984 and kicked off a product line that were Apple's flagship computers for many years.

The Macintosh helped popularise the combination of graphical interface and mouse that is ubiquitous today.

The machine was unveiled using a hugely expensive TV advert, directed by film maker Ridley Scott and shown during the US Superbowl on 22 January 1984

Desktop pioneer

The project to create the Macintosh was started by legendary computer maker Jef Raskin and the original machine had a 9in screen in an upright beige case, 128k of RAM, internal floppy drive, and came with keyboard and single-button mouse.

Apple had previously produced computers using a graphical user interface (GUI), such as the Apple Lisa. But those machines cost far more than the original Macintosh.

Although Microsoft had launched its operating system - MS DOS - in 1981 it was not until 1985, a year after the Macintosh made its debut, that it introduced its own GUI, Microsoft Windows. However, this did not enjoy significant popularity until the advent of Windows 3.x in 1990.

It's amazing the Mac has lasted so long and had such a positive impact on the world Macintosh designer Andy Hertzfeld Macintosh designers look back at their creation My memories of the Macintosh

The Macintosh's relatively low price tag of £1,840 ($2,495) made it very affordable, said Mark Hattersley, editor in chief of Macworld UK.

"It was a hugely popular machine," said Mr Hattersley.

"It took desktop computing away from IBM and back to Apple for a good number of years," he said. "It brought the notion of the desktop graphical interface to the mass market." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7846575.stm>

By Vanessa Buschschluter BBC News

As the numbers have swelled, the Spanish authorities have tried to contain the flow by reinforcing border controls and forging links with their counterparts in the migrants' countries of origin.

Ships and planes from seven EU countries now also patrol the Atlantic and the Mediterranean trying to intercept migrants at sea.

And this year, a new tool will be deployed to halt the traffic - a satellite communications system, which will improve contacts between Spain, Portugal and three of the countries the migrants set out from on their perilous crossing, Senegal, Mauritania and Cape Verde.

At the heart of the $3.2m Sea Horse Network, is a 3.7-tonne satellite linking seven control centres in Africa and Europe, enabling them to communicate more quickly, easily and securely.

SEA HORSE NETWORK Participating countries: Spain, Portugal, Senegal, Mauritania, Cape Verde Invited to join: Morocco, Guinea Bissau, Gambia

Sea Horse's nerve centre is located in the capital of the Canaries, Las Palmas. There, the information from local control centres in the five participating countries is collated.

A nerve centre will be connected to local control stations Enlarge Image

Miguel Marquez of Indra, the company which has developed the system, says the technology is not new but that it is the first time it has been used to fight illegal immigration.

"All the information transmitted is encoded twice, making sure it's both confidential and safe," he says. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7818478.stm>

By Dhruti Shah BBC News

It may sound as if the idea is taken from fairy tales, but buildings made from straw bales have become increasingly popular in the UK during recent years.

And unlike the self-build property in The Three Little Pigs, these homes have gained a faithful following in the UK.

This is because they are viewed as being cheaper to build, have a reputation for providing good insulation, are sustainable and tend to be built using locally-sourced materials.

Now North Kesteven District Council has taken the trend a bit further by commissioning the three-bedroom semi-detached houses.

It is part of its bid to build affordable, environmentally-friendly homes. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7855847.stm>

By Tim Weber Business editor, BBC News website, in Davos

But how bad is that crisis? Was it wrong to let Lehman fail? Or was Lehman just a symptom not the cause of the chaos in the global economy?

Tough questions, and the World Economic Forum had lined up a five top experts (including two Nobel prize winners) to find answers.

The economists among them were Crunch Cassandras; two or three years ago they had predicted that our financial system was headed for a huge liquidity crisis - Nouriel Roubini, Nassim Taleb and economic historian Niall Ferguson.

A pity then, a participant said, that two years ago nobody had thought of inviting them to speak at the forum.

Little wonder that this session was hugely oversubscribed, with 150 people on the waiting list and probably more than that crowding into one of the cavernous dining rooms that are the hallmark of Davos hotels.

Under Davos rules this was a closed session, to encourage frank debate. So with a few exceptions I am not allowed to attribute quotes to individual speakers.

But I can report what was said, and this session was an intellectually stimulating eye opener - and utterly depressing (at least economically). <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/davos/7859179.stm>

The 86-page report sets out ambitious targets for the government to make broadband ubiquitous across the UK, reform radio spectrum, and sort out public broadcasting.

Some have been positive about its conclusions but opposition politicians criticised the wide-ranging report, saying it was light on specifics.

"We're very disappointed," said Jeremy Hunt, shadow culture minister.

"We thought the report was going to contain a strategy," he said. "In France and Germany they are laying fibre, in Japan they already have it. In Britain the average broadband speed is 3.6Mb so what [Andy Burnham] is talking about is getting half the current speed."

Don Foster, the Lib Dem's culture, media and sport spokesman, said the report was "bitterly disappointing".

"We've spent lots of money on reviews, but all we now have is a strategy group, an umbrella body, a delivery group, a rights agency, an exploratory review, a digital champion and an expert task force.

"This report has been a complete damp squib," he said.

Industry analysts warned that the report should not end up as a substitute for concrete action - especially where moves to universal broadband were concerned.

READ THE FULL INTERIM REPORT Digital Britain interim report(2MB) Most computers will open PDF documents automatically, but you may need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader. Download the reader here At a glance: Digital Britain

Matthew Howett, senior analyst at industry analysis firm Ovum, said the report was well-intended but "severely lacking in the detail".

Mr Howett said the interim Digital Britain document would give rise to a further eight reports spread across three separate organisations.

"The government must ensure that Digital Britain doesn't become merely a series of reviews, reports and consultations," he said.

Mr Howett welcomed the suggestions in the report aimed at reforming the way radio spectrum is managed and re-used. Sensible management of the airwaves could help the government move forward on its aims of universal broadband, he said.

Choosing to deliver ubiquitous broadband via both wired and wireless connections was not without its risks, said Phil Smith, Cisco's UK vice president.

"It will be a stretch to achieve that, and solve the issue of making broadband relevant to everyone as well as making people actually want it," he said.

"It will take a lot of co-operation to actually make it happen," he added. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7858946.stm>

Analysis By Steve Schifferes Economics reporter, BBC News

But this time things are very different.

International bankers are keeping a low profile, and at the opening session the prime ministers of Russia and China blamed the US for the global economic crisis and called for radical reform of the world financial system.

Will the deepening global crisis lead to recriminations rather than cooperation among political leaders, despite the hopes expressed at the G20 summit of world leaders in the autumn?

US in the dock

The economic crisis may aggravate the negative tendencies that are present in global politics Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin Putin calls for currency reform Stephanie Flanders: The only game in town

The war of words between China and the US over the global crisis had already begun last week, with the new US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner criticising China for "currency manipulation" that led to high US trade deficits.

In his first appearance at Davos, the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao hit back, placing the blame for the crisis squarely on the shoulders of the US authorities.

Among the causes of the crisis, he cited "inappropriate macro-economic policies of some economies and their unsustainable model of development" - a clear swipe at the low savings and high consumption rate of the US economy - and "the failure of financial supervision and regulation".

He also blamed the banks for their "blind pursuit of profit" and a "lack of self-discipline" which have landed the world economy "in the most difficult situation since the Great Depression".

Further criticism came from Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who said that "poor quality regulation" led to "the collapses of the existing financial system".

Mr Putin also criticised the world's dependence on the dollar.

"Excessive dependence on what is basically the only reserve currency is dangerous for the world economy," he said.

He said that the result was "a serious malfunction in the very system of global economic growth" and that "whole regions of the world, including Europe, found themselves at the periphery of global economic processes" and "were outside the framework of the key economic and financial decisions".

The fund, an ethical investor, sold shares in the firms because Textron makes cluster bombs and because of environmental concerns about Barrick.

The fund, which has a value of about $300bn (£208bn), sold $400m worth of shares in the two companies.

Barrick said investors were free to choose which company to invest in.

The Norwegian fund - known as the oil fund as it invests surplus oil and gas revenues - operates under ethical guidelines.

We acquired the mine... a few years ago and have been [making] steady progress in improving its performance Vincent Borg, Barrick Gold

In the past, it has blacklisted companies which produce nuclear arms and companies deemed to have abused workers' rights.

Last September, it stopped investment in Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto because of environmental concerns. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7861300.stm>

Jiang Fan, from China's National Population and Family Planning Commission, said environmental pollution was the cause of the problem.

He said a child was born with physical defects every 30 seconds because of the degrading environment.

The report said China's coal-rich Shanxi province had the highest rate.

The commission blamed emissions from the region's large chemical industry for the problems there. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7863290.stm>

By Tim Weber Business editor, BBC News website, in Davos

The word recession could be ticked off in minutes - usually during the opening remarks of any session.

And we did not have to wait long for any of the other words: crisis, bail-out, protectionism, billions of dollar, trillions of dollar and on and on.

So let's hear it for the optimists at the World Economic Forum, intrepid souls who see the silver lining, spot the opportunity, do not believe that all is lost.

And it was possible to find them, provided one looked hard enough.

A good crisis

As recessions go, the current one is considered to be pretty bad, the worst since the 1930s.

But never let a good crisis go to waste, the saying goes, and there are plenty of entrepreneurs who want to seize the moment.

A downturn, they say, is a good time to grab market share from weakened competitors.

It's the moment to launch a disruptive technology, because every company is re-examining how it works and looks to make efficiencies.

Talking up their opportunities are the usual suspects, Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Group, and Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, founder of Easyjet.

"But everybody else is so gloomy here, are you really that optimistic," I ask Sir Stelios. "I've been calling the bottom of this market since November," he says with a laugh.

By Tim Weber Business editor, BBC News website, in Davos

Founder Klaus Schwab announced a "global redesign initiative" to reform banking, regulation and corporate governance.

For five days, more than 2,000 business and political leaders discussed what some here called the "crisis of capitalism".

However, most discussions described the problems, not solutions.

The forum's official theme this year had been "shaping the post-crisis world", but that turned out to be premature.

Rather, the debates proved the widespread uncertainty amongst both politicians and corporate bosses, as they tried to gauge the depth of the economic crisis and explore ways how to get out of it.

Nobody in Davos tried to refute the prediction that the global economy is heading into a deep and long recession.

One top money market manager said: "If you believe that the world economy will turn the corner at the end of this year, or in [the first quarter] of 2010, I tell you we have not turned the corner, we can't see the corner, we don't even know where the corner is."

We worshiped in the temple of cutthroat competition, and so some cooked the books, because the treasure is so great Desmond Tutu, South African Archbishop

Another participant summed up the state of the discussion as "we don't know what to do, only that we need to do something and we need to do it fast".

With the old certainties of the free market gone, even free marketeers accepted the need for more regulation, quick.

Professor Schwab said the current situation was a perfect example of where banks could take the lead and devise a system of self-regulation, and not wait for governments to regulate it.

It may be too late for that, though, with politicians from Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel to UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown calling for a global regulator to ensure a smoother running of the international financial system. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/davos/7863684.stm>

By Tim Weber Business editor, BBC News website, in Davos

Follow Tim in Davos on Twitter

Of course, every company worth its salt has a website, not least those who have sent their executives to the World Economic Forum in Davos.

But the discussions here suggest that many companies are still struggling to move beyond having a colourful website towards really using the internet to their advantage.

And to make things worse, hardly any company knows how to cope with the rise of social media - the Facebooks, Twitters, blogs and YouTubes of the digital world.

Digital confidence

Getting the web right starts with the basics: spam, privacy and fraud.

"The internet is seen by many [consumers] as an extremely dangerous place," says Thomas Stewart of consulting firm Booz & Company.

Companies have to tackle the "killers of digital confidence", he says, from issues such as network security to fraud prevention.

This is not just about having a secure website. It begins with basic issues such as being honest and upfront with your customers.

Davos this year seems more like some kind of self-help group: "Chief Executives Anonymous", trying metaphorically to talk each other down off snow-dusted window ledges Keep up to date with live text updates from Davos

Networking website Facebook suffered a public relations disaster when it started to mine its users' personal data to show them targeted adverts without warning them about it.

In the UK, telecoms firm BT had a similar meltdown over the use of the much-criticised advertising platform Phorm.

It is not the adverts that are objectionable, it is not being transparent about it.

Google's online e-mail service Gmail also shows targeted adverts, but warns customers at sign-up how it works.

Even Amazon has started to explain why it recommends certain products to its customers ("Recommended because you purchased...").

It is not about legal compliance, say the analysts at Booz, it is about getting it right for the consumer.

Losing your business model

The problem is that many companies do not even get that far.

"Most people get the internet only because of a crisis, because they really have to," says David Brain of PR giant Edelman, pointing at business leaders such as Michael Dell and Bill Gates of Microsoft.

Companies that do not get it keep making life difficult for their customers, for example mobile or cable operators that confine customers to their own content offering.

"The first thing that companies learn when they start using the internet is that they are not in control David Brain, Edelman

"Many customers want that," protests a cable executive, "they want their children to be in a safe environment."

It is a fair point, but most customers have grown up, and all previous attempts to confine them to a walled garden have failed.

Another perfect case study is the media sector.

One of the debates here in Davos demonstrates vividly how helpless many old media companies feel when they realise that their audience is disappearing into the digital vastness of the internet.

Hardest hit, of course, are print media. A recent study in the United States by Pew Research suggests that last year more Americans turned to the internet for news than newspapers (with television still ruling the roost).

As old media struggle with new-fangled things like "search engine optimisation" to ensure they stand out in places like Yahoo and Google News, many media leaders appear to be reduced to criticising the editorial quality and credibility of blogs and other online news sources.

Meanwhile, in the real world, the shift goes even further. In China, for example, more people now get their news on mobile phones than newspapers (never mind the fixed-line internet) and making news look good on a very small screen is an art in itself.

The rise of social media

Potentially most disruptive of all, though, is the rise of social media.

"The first thing that companies learn when they start using the internet is that they are not in control. They find it really difficult to abandon their control mindset," says Mr Brain, who compares the experience to "crowdsurfing".

But what are social media? At one Davos session, 10 prominent exponents of social media - from former Facebook and Linked-in executive Matt Cohler to Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and Techcrunch editor Mike Arrington - came up with 10 different definitions.

The most popular definition proved to be "human interaction in a virtual world".

Hiding behind that description is a teeming jungle of social networks that allows people instant communication with hundreds or thousands of "followers", "friends" or plain old readers.

How not to use social media

How does it affect companies? Once your unhappy customer would have told 10 friends. Now he can tell 500 and, if you are unlucky, his complaint will be the first thing that potential new customers see when they search for your product on Google.

There are other pitfalls. In one recent example, an account manager with a well-known PR company visited the headquarters of FedEx in Memphis.

On the way to the company, the hapless executive told his friends on Twitter that he would rather die than live in Memphis. The trouble is, FedEx people care deeply about their hometown and took offense.

Online arguments ensued and a less-than-140-character message soured the relationship with one of the PR firm's most important clients.

The "Buy American" clause seeks to ensure that only US iron, steel and manufactured goods are used in construction work funded by the bill.

The EU ambassador in Washington said that if approved, the measure would set a "dangerous precedent".

The $800bn (£567bn) rescue plan package is under discussion in the US Senate this week.

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama is expected to name Republican Senator Judd Gregg as commerce secretary.

Mr Gregg would be the third Republican in Mr Obama's cabinet.

The president's first choice for the post, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, withdrew following questions about his links to big business. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7866308.stm>

By Chris Mason BBC News, Brussels

UK members of the European Parliament are debating precisely how, if at all, existing rules might have to change to end the dispute at the Lindsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire which has led to various wildcat strikes across the UK.

The row in Lincolnshire centres on the legitimacy or otherwise of the oil firm Total hiring labourers from Italy and Portugal.

And so at the heart of the dispute is the EU's rule book - a document that would make your telephone directory at home look like a mere postcard.

Protectionism will kill the economy stone dead Andrew Duff, Lib Dem MEP

The so-called Acquis Communitaire is around 80,000 pages long, and right up there among the opening principles is the free movement of labour.

It was in the Treaty of Rome back in 1957 when the Common Market or European Economic Community, as it was then called, was set up - and so when Britain signed up in 1973, the country signed up to that rule too.

Here in Brussels there is widespread support for that founding principle - not least because of the perceived alternative.

"Protectionism will kill the economy stone dead," Andrew Duff, the leader of the European Liberal Democrat group and MEP for the East of England says.

The European Commission agrees. Johannes Laitenberger from the Commission told the BBC he had sympathy for the workers.

But he said: "The internal market is actually our best platform to maintain a high level of employment in the European Union.

"All the evidence from past crises shows that the moment you enter a spiral of closing borders to each other, all will be the poorer and will have less employment."

The complicating twist here, though, is that it is not just to the opening pages of the European Union rulebook you have to look in this dispute.

Rules such as the Posted Workers' Directive and legal challenges to it also play their part - and prove confusing, as one Labour MEP admits.

"Even if Total have given guarantees that they will not exclude UK workers, or undercut UK conditions, recent European Court of Justice cases have for months now thrown doubt on how such companies will behave in the future," Claude Moraes, Labour's European spokesman on Employment and Social Affairs tells me.

"These judgments are getting the balance badly wrong."

In short, he feels that locally negotiated collective agreements - struck up between unions and firms - are being disregarded, albeit legally, by multinational firms, especially those hiring subcontactors.

"This is fear, not xenophobia, we are seeing in Lincolnshire and elsewhere," he says. "And you can see why it's happening." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/7866317.stm>

Bernard Madoff

By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News website

Among people who study human development, it is a widely-held view that each person needs about 20 litres of water each day for the basics - to drink, cook and wash sufficiently to avoid disease transmission.

Yet at the height of the East African drought, people were getting by on less than five litres a day - in some cases, less than one litre a day, enough for just three glasses of drinking water and nothing left over.

The scarcity at the heart of the global water crisis is rooted in power, poverty and inequality UNDP, 2006

Some people, perhaps incredibly from a western vantage point, are hardy enough to survive in these conditions; but it is not a recipe for a society that is healthy and developing enough to break out of poverty.

"Obviously there are many drivers of human development," says the UN's Andrew Hudson.

"But water is the most important."

At the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), where Dr Hudson works as principal technical advisor to the water governance programme, he calculated the contribution that various factors make to the Human Development Index, a measure of how societies are doing socially and economically.

"It was striking. I looked at access to energy, spending on health, spending on education - and by far the strongest driver of the HDI on a global scale was access to water and sanitation." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7865603.stm>

Google Ocean expands this map to include large swathes of the ocean floor and abyssal plain.

Users can dive beneath a dynamic water surface to explore the 3D sea floor terrain.

The map also includes 20 content layers, containing information from the world's leading scientists, researchers, and ocean explorers.

You can now dive into the world's ocean that covers almost three-quarters of the planet and discover new wonders Al Gore

In a statement, Mr Gore said that the update would make Google Earth a "magical experience".

"You can not only zoom into whatever part of our planet's surface you wish to examine in closer detail, you can now dive into the world's ocean that covers almost three-quarters of the planet and discover new wonders that had not been accessible in previous versions".

Approximately 70% of the worlds surface is covered by water and contains nearly 80% of all life, yet less than 5% of it has actually been explored.

Google Oceans aims to let users visit some of the more interesting locations, including underwater volcanoes, as well as running videos on marine life, shipwrecks and clips of favourite surf and dive spots.

The new features were developed in close collaboration with oceanographer Sylvia Earle and an advisory council of more than 25 ocean advocates and scientists.

Sylvia Earle, the National Geographic Society's explorer in residence, said the new features would bring the blue planet to life. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7865407.stm>

Filipinas marry foreigners for money not love

Asian stocks up amid optimism about Chinese economy

 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7869639.stm>

It says the US Treasury paid $78bn (£53bn) more than it should when buying stakes in banks through the $700bn Troubled Assets Relief Program (Tarp).

The Treasury had paid $254bn in 2008 in return for shares in a number of troubled financial institutions.

The findings may influence Congress when it considers how to spend the remaining $350bn in bail-out funds.

The oversight panel was established in October 2008 to "review of the state of financial markets and the regulatory system", and to measure how effectively the government bail-out programmes were working to correct the problems.

'Better managed'

The new US Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner, is expected to bring fresh proposals to Congress next week, outlining how the new administration wants to spend the rest of the bail-out money.

He is likely to accept that more of the bail-out money needs to go to help struggling homeowners and small businesses, releasing some of the money given to the banks.

And the administration has already signalled that it will introduce tough new limits on executive pay for banks that receive additional bail-outs.

With the US financial sector still troubled, there have been calls for additional funds to be made available.

Microsoft launches project for Filipino software start-ups

By Juliet Njeri BBC News, Nairobi

The crew of the Ukrainian freighter will be savouring freedom, while the ship's owner will no doubt be ruing the high cost paid for its release.

But it is perhaps the pirates who will walk away from the saga with the most to smile about as they count their loot, reported to be $3.2m (£2.2m).

The MV Faina is the second high-profile ship to be released by pirates this year. In January, a Saudi oil tanker, the Sirius Star, was released after the hi-jackers reportedly received $3m as ransom.

If the military presence stays for a long time, it could have a long-term impact on piracy Roger Middleton Chatham House

This means that the gangs of modern day buccaneers operating off the Somali coast have "earned" at least $6.2m in just over a month.

Officials say that pirates were paid some $150m in ransoms in 2008.

This is a handsome reward by any standards, and in a country ravaged by war, is likely to tempt even more gangs of desperate men to join the potentially lucrative trade.

Most of the pirates are young and reportedly live lavish lives - they marry the most beautiful girls, live in big houses and drive big, flashy cars.

It is said that piracy has now become "socially acceptable, even "fashionable". <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7872946.stm>

By Stephanie Flanders BBC Economics editor, in Davos

It is a club. And with any club, the rule is that you want it to be as small as possible while still including you.

The knack of the organisers for exploiting this weakness of human nature fits with everything you have ever heard about the Swiss.

I am told that the private companies that bankroll the event find it ruinously expensive to bring anyone other than the boss. He or she gets in fairly cheap because it helps Davos to be full of number ones.

You pay a lot more to bring your number twos and threes. They are worth less to the gathering, but the organisers know they are the ones who will really, really want to come.

The result? A lot of money for the World Economic Forum, but also a lot of people in the club.

This year the "select few" going to Davos ran to more than 2,500.

Yet Davos has an answer to that too.

It is all in the colour of your badge. That tells you where you are in the pecking order, in the Forum's favoured phrase, your level of "guestdom".

And trust me, the powers that be have a very shrewd idea of who is up and who is down. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7871994.stm>

Cars in the US had traffic violation tickets placed on the windscreen, which then directed users to a website.

The website claimed to have photos of the alleged parking violation, but then tricks users into downloading a virus.

Anti-virus firm McAfee says the Vundo Trojan then gets users to install a fake anti-virus scanner.

Vehicles in Grand Forks, North Dakota were the targets for this new type of fraud.

Drivers found the following message on the yellow ticket on their windscreen: "PARKING VIOLATION This vehicle is in violation of standard parking regulations".

The ticket then instructed drivers to visit a website, where drivers could "view pictures with information about your parking preferences".

According to internet security watchdog The SANS Institute, the website then had photos of cars in various car parks around Grand Forks and instructed users to download a tool bar to find photos of their own vehicle.

But the tool bar was actually an executable file which installed a Trojan virus that then displayed a fake security alert when the PC was rebooted. The fake alert then prompted the user to install fake anti-virus software.

Writing on the SANS blog, anti-virus analyst Lenny Zeltser ran through the different stages of infection.

"The initial program installed itself as a browser helper object (BHO) for Internet Explorer that downloaded a component from childhe.com and attempted to trick the victim into installing a fake anti-virus scanner from bestantispyware securityscan.com and protectionsoft warecheck.com," he explained.

It is thought this is the first time fraudsters had used real world solutions to try and trick users, although Mr Zeltser warned that it would not be the last.

"Attackers continue to come up with creative ways of tricking potential victims into installing malicious software.

"Merging physical and virtual worlds via objects that point to websites is one way to do this. I imagine we'll be seeing such approaches more often." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7872299.stm>

Warning - Email scam falsely claims ISOC connection

From: ISOC Notice
Date: Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 11:17 PM
Subject: [ISOC] Warning - Email scam falsely claims ISOC connection
To: isoc-members-announce

Dear colleagues

The Internet Society (ISOC) has recently become aware that there is an
email scam circulating, which claims to be part of a competition
sponsored by ISOC.

The email, which claims that ISOC is a sponsor of the “FAN-OF-THE-WEB
Promotion for 2008 , promises a prize will be sent once the recipient
provides certain personal details, including passport information, as
well as a payment for shipping fees.

Please be advised that ISOC is not connected in any way with these
emails, nor does it sponsor the competition named in those mails.
Furthermore, ISOC is not involved in any competitions or awards that
would result in unsolicited emails of this nature.

ISOC urges all Internet users to be careful of any unsolicited emails
that ask you to provide money or personal information. If you have any
doubts about any mail which purports to be connected to ISOC, please
feel welcome to contact us directly:

Kind regards

http://www.isoc.org/isoc/contact.shtml

Politicians, business leaders and policymakers searched for solutions at this year's World Economic Forum in Davos.

Meanwhile, different debates were taking place at the "alternative" World Social Forum in Belem, Brazil.

There, an eclectic mix of some 100,000 campaigners, thinkers, and working people came to starkly different conclusions about the causes of the downturn, and how best to address it.

"This crisis has roots in global overproduction" Walden Bello Focus on Global South "Calls for re-regulation require a dismantling of the architecture of international trade treaties" Myriam Vander Stichele Researcher on multinationals

"At this point the capitalist emperor has no clothes" Marcos Arruda Economist "The current economic model which privileges unbridled competition is not sustainable" David Evan Harris Director, Global Lives Project

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7874667.stm>

The discovery of more than 330 planets outside our solar system in recent years has helped refine the number of life forms that are likely to exist.

The current research estimates that there are at least 361 intelligent civilisations in our Galaxy and possibly as many as 38,000.

The work is reported in the International Journal of Astrobiology.

Even with the higher of the two estimates, however, it is not very likely that contact could be established with alien worlds.

While researchers often come up with overall estimates of the likelihood of intelligent life in the universe, it is a process fraught with guesswork; recent guesses put the number anywhere between a million and less than one.

"It's a process of quantifying our ignorance," said Duncan Forgan, the University of Edinburgh researcher who carried out the work.

In his new approach, Mr Forgan simulated a galaxy much like our own, allowing it to develop solar systems based on what is now known from the existence of so-called exoplanets in our galactic neighbourhood.

These simulated alien worlds were then subjected to a number of different scenarios.

If alien life forms do exist, we may not necessarily be able to make contact with them, and we have no idea what form they would take Duncan Forgan Edinburgh University

The first assumed that it is difficult for life to be formed but easy for it to evolve, and suggested there were 361 intelligent civilisations in the galaxy.

A second scenario assumed life was easily formed but struggled to develop intelligence. Under these conditions, 31,513 other forms of life were estimated to exist.

The final scenario examined the possibility that life could be passed from one planet to another during asteroid collisions - a popular theory for how life arose here on Earth.

That approach gave a result of some 37,964 intelligent civilisations in existence. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7870562.stm>

The contract revives the fortunes of the C-17 - the workhorse of the US fleet of long-range cargo planes.

US firm Boeing had been on the verge of scrapping C-17 production in 2006.

US Congress has recently approved $3.6bn (£2.4bn) in funding for the acquisition of the 15 aircraft that would be used in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Last year, the US Department of Defence cancelled a controversial $35bn (£24bn) competition for a fleet of new air refuelling tankers.

The contract had been awarded to Northrop Grumman and its European partner EADS.

But, this decision was then overturned, allowing Boeing to re-enter the fray. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7876128.stm>

Mark Mardell: latvian_hard_times_getting_harder

21. At 11:19pm on 05 Feb 2009, WebAliceinwonderland wrote:

Politejomsviking. And everybody.

Please help me - find a flaw in this model.

What is to be done?

By Imogen Foulkes BBC News, Berne

More controversially for many Swiss, they will also vote on whether to extend that free movement to new EU members Bulgaria and Romania.

Switzerland remains outside the EU - but its political and economic ties to Europe are very close.

A "no" to free movement could put that relationship at risk. Opinion polls indicate the vote will be close.

Since the Swiss first introduced free movement of labour the number of EU citizens working in Switzerland has risen to over a million.

Business leaders like Rudolf Staempfli say the policy has brought only benefits, despite doubts at the time.

"They suggested we wanted the cheap Polish worker in Switzerland, but the opposite has come true, we took skilled expensive workers," he said. "We do have a subsidiary in Poland, with swiss workers there. "

But that first decision to allow in EU workers was taken during an economic boom - things are different now. Hans Fehr, member of parliament for the right-wing Swiss People's Party, claims extending free movement to Bulgaria and Romania could bring a mass influx of cheap labour.

"Now we are in a recession, very hard - for Swiss businessman it is important to have low-paid workers and that is very dangerous for Swiss workers, maybe they lose their job," he says.

Opinion polls show the vote will be close - but a no vote could carry risks.

Switzerland may not be in the EU, but it needs a good relationship with Brussels - one in every two Swiss francs is earned through trade with the EU, and one in every three Swiss jobs depends on that trade.

Brussels has made it clear the Swiss can't pick and choose EU policies - rejecting free movement could threaten those crucial trade ties. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7877218.stm>

A POINT OF VIEW

We have to change the adage - man's best friend may not have four legs and bark. In fact, the creature I have in mind is only a ten-thousandth of an inch long and answers to the name E.coli.

If you're one of the zillions of hypochondriacs on our planet, you will know that this is not Mr Edward Coli of Twickenham, but the bacterium Escherichia coli - E.coli for short - a version of a single cell microscopic bug.

You may not be on speaking terms with E.coli if you've encountered it on your travels. Like all families, it has uncouth members. If certain strains of E.coli get together in big numbers in your gut, you will know about it. The sickness they produce as a gang can be nasty, so ordinary mortals prudently avoid contact, walk the other side of the street as it were; when we get caught by the gang we call it food poisoning.

Ugh. But stay with me. The good thing about E.coli - the very good thing - is that it has qualities a brilliant scientist exploited to bless mankind with a variety of life-saving medicines - medicines so valuable in combating cancer and age-related blindness, for instance, they are now at the heart of a raging takeover battle for control of the wonderfully successful company founded on his original work with E.coli.

His name is Herbert Boyer. I'll come to him and his young friend Robert Swanson shortly.

Hostile takeover

The company they founded on the campus of the University of California, San Francisco, with $500 dollars apiece is Genentech, and its scientists are furious that the Swiss-based pharmaceutical giant Hoffman La Roche is making a hostile bid for the 44% of Genentech shares it doesn't have.

Robert Swanson, an unemployed banker, had an idea that molecular biology had progressed to the point where it could become a business Hear Radio 4's A Point of View

Billions of dollars are at stake, but at heart it's not really about money. It's as much a confrontation of cultures, the free-spirited microbiologists of south San Francisco v what they see as the uptight bureaucrats from Basel.

Hoffman La Roche's medicines are chemical compounds, Genentech's are derived from genetic engineering - in the stock market tables they're listed as DNA, controversial for some - but in my view there's nothing scary about what they do. It is a very natural process.

Hoffman La Roche is one of the leading companies in what's known as Big Pharmaceuticals - Big Pharm. It can claim its successes - anti depressants, of which Valium is the most famous. But Big Pharm generally has been having a dry run for the past few years, while the genetic engineers have scored success after success. Genentech has had its 15 major medicines investigated without one coming up negative.

By Jason Palmer Science and technology reporter, BBC News

Researchers have taken laser snapshots lasting just one ten-thousandth of a billionth of a second to examine the role of electrons in energy transfer.

The approach will be key in discovering how energy trickles through other systems, such as electronic devices, and could lead to better solar cells.

The work is published in the current issue of Physical Review Letters.

Ian Mercer of University College Dublin, Ireland, collaborating with researchers at Imperial College London, UK, examined the protein LH2, a well-known photosynthetic system.

The protein helps to pull electrons out of water which are then used to drive the reaction that makes sugars from carbon dioxide.

"More generally, we're trying to understand how nature can transport energy across large molecules, and photosynthesis is a good example of where nature does it remarkably efficiently," Dr Mercer told BBC News.

Significant research has been performed to assess the role of electrons in that process with a view to increasing the performance of solar cells, most of which currently operate at an efficiency around just 10%. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7873294.stm>

The tribes say they were victims of illegal land seizures and breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi.

This was the agreement on land and human rights reached by British settlers and indigenous people in 1840.

The government also acknowledged Maori authorship of the Haka, the war dance used by the All Blacks rugby team.

The tribes involved have some 12,000 members and will receive about half the amount in cash and the rest in rents from government-owned forests and greenhouse gas emission credits.

Haka

The Maori chief Te Rauparaha was recognised as the originator of the Haka, written to celebrate his escape from death in a battle in the 1820s.

This places ownership of the Haka in his Ngati Toa tribe.

The government has also acknowledged that he was detained without trial in 1846 for 18 months.

Concerns have grown recently at the inappropriate use of the Haka for commercial purposes.

In 2006, an advertisement for Fiat cars featured an Italian woman doing a version of the Haka; it was also used repeatedly in the Hollywood movie Forever Strong. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7882775.stm>

By Maggie Shiels Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley

Microsoft said so-called "malicious insider" breaches are on the rise and will worsen in the present downturn.

"With 1.5 million predicted job losses in the US alone, there's an increased risk and exposure to these attacks," said Microsoft's Doug Leland.

"This is one of the most significant threats companies face," he said.

As the general manager of the newly formed Identity and Security unit at the company, Mr Leland told BBC News the effects of such attacks can be far reaching.

"The malicious insider is classed as the greatest security concern because they have access, and relatively easy access, to corporate assets," said Mr Leland.

Trillion dollar losses

A groundbreaking study last year by Verizon in the US found that insider breaches accounted for 18% of attacks with the remainder coming outside the company - for example by hackers, government agencies or business partners.

The report covered 230 million records over four years across the financial, technology, retail and food sectors.

Meanwhile a study by McAfee pegged total global economic losses due to data theft and security breaches thanks to organised crime, hackers and inside jobs at $1 trillion last year.

The problem is not just a serious one for business.

Just this week, on the heels of some high-profile government breaches, President Obama announced an immediate 60-day review of how the federal government uses technology to protect secrets and data.

My parents didn't like to leave me at home alone, because they knew I would dismantle the radio.

Even at my friends' houses, I would try to take the television apart, to find out how it worked.

I never imagined I would have the opportunity to work for Nasa. Not with my background Does Africa support science?

But my life changed the first time I went to the airport in Accra. I saw an aeroplane landing and taking off.

I knew then that I wanted to be pilot.

From that day, everything I read was scientific. At school, I read science subjects.

My father wanted me to be a lawyer. But he supported my ambitions. So I was lucky.

But then, when I was 17, I found out that I could not fulfil my dream. I could not become a pilot.

The reason was that my brother, my father and my mother all wore glasses. This implied that, one day, I would wear glasses too. And indeed I do.

Solar power

I decided to channel my energy elsewhere - into engineering.

I studied electrical engineering in the US, at Rutgers University, New Jersey.

My intention was to return to Ghana, so I started to focus my mind on using solar energy to power appliances: Solar fridges, solar fans, solar freezers - solar everything.

The sun is for free, so I believe we have to use it in Africa. We have to work with the resources we have.

But instead of working on solar panels in Ghana, I got a job with Nasa, developing and flying spacecraft.

I never imagined I would have the opportunity to work for Nasa. Not with my background.

I remember watching the Challenger incident - when the shuttle disintegrated.

I visited the "American Centre", in Ghana, where I watched the tragedy on the news. Afterwards I wrote to Nasa and they replied to me.

They sent me pictures and documents on some of their spacecraft and I put them on my wall.

I still have these pictures today.

AVE'S FLIGHT PATH 1966: Born in Hohoe, Ghana 1978: Attends Adisadel College, Cape Coast 1989: Studies electrical engineering at Rutgers University, USA 1995: Hired by Nasa 2004: Helps develop the Extravehicular Activity Infrared (EVA IR) camera for space-walking astronauts 2006: Becomes technical adviser to Nasa Office of the Inspector General 2006: Launch of the Calipso environmental satellite, for which Dr Kludze was a systems engineer

Now many years later, I have worked at Nasa headquarters, in Washington, as a requirements manager. I help Nasa to take strategic decisions.

President [George] Bush outlined his vision that Nasa would go back to the Moon by 2020, so the agency is working towards that.

I am working on the communication systems the astronauts will use on the Moon, and on Mars.

They will send back pictures live. I have to make sure we don't leave out any requirements. Things have moved on a long way from Apollo.

I have flown several spacecraft - including the Calipso satellite.

But I was not in orbit - I flew them from the ground, using robotic controls at the Nasa control centre.

African mission

People ask me: What has Nasa done for Africans?

But many of them have cell phones - which were developed with Nasa technology.

The cars they drive and the glasses they wear - all of these have benefited from Nasa technology. It trickles down to the ordinary man.

Nasa is not only concerned with space. We develop technologies for aeroplanes.

And our way of developing systems applies to all kinds of engineering projects.

If you had a water project, for agriculture, Nasa technology could make your project more efficient.

I think the younger generation in Ghana today have more opportunities than I did to become scientists.

I first saw a computer in the USA. Today, the younger generation have access to the internet - they can get any information they want.

The education I received in Ghana was very sound - it served me remarkably well at Rutgers.

But where African schools have a problem, is that they focus heavily on theory, whereas [universities] focus on the practical - solving real world problems.

If we can bring that practical element into African schools, then we have a lot of brilliant young minds who will benefit.

When I was growing up it was difficult for science students. There was no avenue for them to become useful members of society. They ended up doing other jobs.

Young Einsteins

But times have changed. In Ghana, I understand they are encouraging pupils to pursue science.

But the question is: After you graduate, do you have the necessary resources to go further?

When I grew up in Ghana, we ploughed the fields using cattle and hoes.

The last time I went home, we were still using them. So where are our engineers?

We need the governments to invest in technology. Then the educational institutes can follow.

When I grew up, my scientific role models were not Africans.

I admired people like Albert Einstein. I was amazed that he could be on our planet and yet he could tell us about different planets.

But today I know many successful African scientists. People like my friend Dr Ohene Frempong, of the Children's Hospital of Pennsylvania (CHOP). He works on sickle cell anaemia.

There are others who have done very well.

What are my remaining ambitions?

Well, I don't plan to go into space. I will leave that to the younger generation.

I will continue contributing to President Bush's vision - to go to the Moon, to Mars, and beyond.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7881708.stm>

You can hear a debate about science teaching in Africa on Thursday 12 February's edition of BBC Africa Have Your Say.

A satellite owned by the US company Iridium hit a defunct Russian satellite at high speed nearly 780km (485 miles) over Siberia on Tuesday, Nasa said.

The risk to the International Space Station and a shuttle launch planned for later this month is said to be low.

The impact produced a massive cloud of debris, and the magnitude of the crash is not expected to be clear for weeks.

The reportedly non-operational Russian satellite, weighing 950kg (2,094lb), had been launched in 1993, while the Iridium satellite weighed 560 kg and was launched in 1997.

When two such objects collide with such force, the ensuing debris can destroy other satellites, says the BBC's Andy Gallacher in Florida.

But Nasa said the risk to the ISS and its three astronauts was low as the station orbits the earth some 435km below the course of the collision.

It is hoped that most of the wreckage from the collision will burn up in the earth's atmosphere, our correspondent says.

Hundreds of pieces of wreckage are now being tracked, reports say, adding to the tens of thousands of objects that are routinely tracked through space.

Some 6,000 satellites have been sent into orbit since 1957. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7885051.stm>

By Steve Kingstone BBC News, Huelva, Spain

In what resembles a police forensic search, he and several dozen other seasonal workers sweep through a strawberry field, picking only the ripest, plumpest fruit.

In Huelva, close to Spain's south-western border with Portugal, February equals strawberries.

In construction, I was earning twice what I make here - but building has simply stopped Former bricklayer turned fruit picker Andres Rangel Sanchez

A quarter of a million tonnes of the fruit are harvested here annually, with the bulk of the crop exported to Germany, France and Britain.

The workforce is a United Nations of cheap immigrant labour - Senegalese, Moroccans, Romanians, Ukrainians, and Bulgarians - willing to toil in these fields for just 36 euros ($46, £32) a day.

But, as Spain officially enters recession, Andres is one of a growing number of Spaniards who have been forced to join them on the land.

"It's seven years since I worked the fields," he says, "and I think we'll see a lot more Spaniards returning.

"In construction, I was earning twice what I make here - but building has simply stopped, there are no jobs. At least here, I'm guaranteed seven or eight months work."

Others see the same logic. In Huelva's heaving job centre, applicants queue to register for an agricultural employment scheme run by Andalucia's regional government. The chosen recruits will pick strawberries, oranges, onions and asparagus. Well over 80% of applicants are Spaniards.

SPAIN'S ECONOMY IN NUMBERS Unemployment 13.9% Unemployment rose 3% last quarter GDP growth -2% (forecast) Source: OECD, EU

Their eagerness to take what some regard as a backward step is easily explained. Huelva's unemployment rate is approaching 21% - 50% higher than the national average and more than two-and-a-half times the EU average.

In construction alone, the jobless total has doubled in the space of a year.

Intense competition

"For 15 years, construction got bigger and bigger. But now it's crashed. It's over, almost paralysed," says Blanca Miedes Ugarte, director of the Local Employment Observatory at the University of Huelva.

"Many people will come back to agriculture," she predicts, but stresses that this is a long-term trend. With dole payments available for up to two years, many former construction workers may bide their time.

"People with large family networks will look for other openings," explains Miedes, "but for those with no support, agriculture is the only option."

Those who do return to the farms may be in for a shock. In 2009 they face intense competition for agricultural jobs. For while Spaniards were off building new homes during Spain's construction boom, Huelva's farmers turned to foreign labour.

For this year's fruit harvests, 40,491 workers were hired from abroad, mostly Morocco and Romania. Gone are the days when the strawberry fields promised work forever for Spanish nationals.

"Back home in Romania I worked in antiques, but here I earn more - up to 900 euros a month," explains 48-year-old Ana Bordeianu from Bucharest.

"I've been coming here for six years, and it's paid for my son's education."

She shares a modest portable bedroom on the outskirts of the farm with another Romanian labourer. Next door, Moroccan workers watch pop videos on an Arabic satellite television channel in another portable cabin.

RP should protest WB report about bid riggings – solons

Migration scheme fo RP health workers lauded in Oslo gathering

The world's biggest chipmaker says the investment will fund 7,000 jobs in Oregon, Arizona and New Mexico.

Last month, Intel said it was cutting up to 6,000 jobs in response to slowing consumer demand for computers.

It also aims to increase production of faster chips. Two of the plants being closed make older-style chips.

"Spending this money will lower our costs and give us more competitive products. It's something that's fundamental to our business model," said Intel chief executive Paul Otellini.

"From our perspective this is a cheaper, better technology," he said.

Nanometer race

Intel has the advantage of the being the largest chipmaker and is using its bigger purse to expand while some of its rivals scale down.

California-based Intel is hoping to boost its fortunes by using the new plants to produce 32 nanometer chip technology, which will lead to its products performing faster and more efficiently.

A nanometer is one billionth of a meter and the majority of Intel's chips use 45 nanometer technology.

Intel's nearest competitor, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is already busy upgrading plants, though it is still lags some way behind Intel. AMD is phasing in 45 nanometer technology to replace 65 nanometers.

Intel said in January it would close five plants in California, Oregon, Malaysia and the Philippines with the loss of between 5,000 and 6,000 jobs.

It said the two US factories were based on older microchip technology.