In a 38-page page complaint, TradeComet.com LLC accused Google of manipulating its system for setting ad rates to make it too expensive for a specialty search engine called SourceTool to promote itself within Google's vast online marketing network.
In a press release, TradeComet said it filed its antitrust lawsuit in a New York federal court.
Google said it hadn't reviewed the allegations as of late Tuesday, but the Mountain View, California-based company reiterated its belief that there are plenty of other online advertising options, including networks run by rivals Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp.
"As we have consistently made clear, the advertising market in which Google operates is highly competitive, and advertisers have a huge range of choices," Google said in a statement.
TradeComet's lawsuit is the latest legal action to allege Google has used its widening market power to create a monopoly that enables it to bully rivals or squeeze out Web sites that it doesn't like.
Google processes nearly two-thirds of the Internet search requests in the United States and sells an even larger chunk of the text-based ad links that appear alongside search results and other content on millions of Web pages served up each day.
That clout spurred a government investigation that would have culminated in an antitrust lawsuit late last year had Google not withdrawn from a planned advertising partnership with Yahoo, which runs the Internet's second biggest search engine.
New York-based TradeComet alleges Google stymied the growth of SourceTool in May 2006 when it raised the minimum bids on SourceTool ads that were triggered by specific search requests. Words that resulted in advertising costs of 5 cents and 10 cents per click soared to $5 and $10 per click, according to the suit.
The suit alleges the higher rates prevented SourceTool from promoting its search engine, which helps connect businesses looking to buy and sell products and services among themselves. TradeComet said its traffic plunged by 90 percent after Google imposed its new pricing terms. - AP <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/149297/Tiny-search-engine-alleges-Google-abuses-its-power>
Indian charmers want their snakes
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Snake charmers are pressing for serum farms to be set up across India
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Playing their flutes, they marched in the city of Calcutta, demanding the right to perform with live snakes.
Shows featuring cobras and other snakes have been banned in India since 1991.
Snake charmers say the ban threatens the survival of their way of life. Animal rights groups say it should be kept to curb the abuse of snakes.
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Many Indian snake charmers continue to perform despite the ban
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Raktim Das, the head of India's snake charmers federation, said the government should make the traditional performance legal again.
He also said serum farms should be set up across India where snake charmers could sell venom for medical use.
"We are being consistently harassed by the police for keeping snakes, which are snatched away without paying us compensation," Mr Das said.
Despite the 1991 ban, hundreds of thousands of snake charmers continue to perform in India. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7896028.stm>
California's budget worries grow
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By Rajesh Mirchandani
BBC News, Los Angeles |
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Job searching 'pink slip' parties could become more common in California
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A recorded phone message at the California Department of Motor Vehicles tells you: "Effective from February 2009, the offices will be closed on the 1st and 3rd Friday of every month."
It is just one of the measures the state has taken in the face of a crippling budget crisis, closing state agencies and forcing employees to forgo wages for two days a month.
But California's budget woes go much further:
- Hundreds of infrastructure projects - road repairs, water maintenance, etc - have been shelved, along with the thousands of jobs they promised;
- counties and state suppliers have not been paid for services they provide;
- thousands of Californians who were looking forward to tax refunds, have not received them and will not do so in the foreseeable future.
Angel Perez, a 33-year-old education worker from Pasadena, found out recently he was not getting a rebate of more than $2,000.
"It makes me pretty angry," he says. "I was counting on that money to pay off a credit card debt. So the longer I have to wait the more I am paying in interest charges... and I have no clue when the money is coming."
California faces a budget shortfall of nearly $42bn.
 |
We would have trouble making car payments and rent payments
 State worker threatened with redundancy
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A combination of factors linked to the state's size and power have led to a situation where the eighth largest economy in the world cannot pay its bills.
California generates nearly 13% of US GDP, but its huge manufacturing sector has taken a massive hit in this recession. Unemployment is heading towards 10% (compared with about around 7.5% nationally).
California's property boom has been replaced with an almighty crash: 28% of all US properties at some stage of the repossession process are in the state.
Taxes levied on property sales have consequently declined; people are spending less, so sales tax, levied on most goods, is down too; and projected income tax receipts are much lower.
The result? Califonia's credit rating has been downgraded to the lowest of any US state, making it almost impossible to borrow money.
Political deadlock
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed a solution that includes more than $15bn in spending cuts and more than $14bn in tax rises, including a 1% rise in sales tax and 12-cent-a-gallon (2p a litre) increase in the state's gasoline tax.
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Mr Schwarzenegger has a plan to dig California out of its fiscal hole
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So state politicians have been deadlocked. Some have even been sleeping in the State Capitol Building, as debates rage through the night.
The governor's warning that 20,000 state employees will be laid off may be a way of prodding lawmakers to reach agreement.
Mr Schwarzenegger says "pink slips" (redundancy notices) will be sent out to junior staff whose posts are threatened. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7896834.stm>
Nato 'can't allow Afghan failure'
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The US is seeking to boost international forces in Afghanistan
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Speaking at a meeting of Nato and partner defence ministers in Krakow, Poland, he said: "We cannot afford the price of failure."
But the military effort should go hand-in-hand with reconstruction and redevelopment work, he argued.
"We should not be under any illusion there is a military solution," he said.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has meanwhile said America will consider paying more rent to continue using a strategic air base in Kyrgyzstan which is key to its Afghan operations.
News that the Kyrgyz parliament has voted to close the US base at Manas has overshadowed the talks in Krakow, which Mr Gates is attending.
Concerned about a resurgence of the Taleban in Afghanistan, the US said this week it would send an additional 17,000 troops to the country and would ask Nato to provide more troops ahead of a general election in August.
'Not an island'
"We cannot afford the price of failure in Afghanistan," said Mr Scheffer.
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Mr Scheffer called for a more "joined-up" international approach
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"Instability in an already highly unstable region, a safe haven for international terrorism and massive suffering for the Afghan people is simply too much to accept."
Mr Scheffer said the countries contributing to Isaf (the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan) needed to work together much more closely.
"We, the Isaf nations, must provide more forces, more trainers and an action support in a more joined-up approach," he told reporters.
"We need a regional approach because Afghanistan is not an island. We need a greater civilian effort, married up more effectively with our military operations if we are not to waste precious time and resources.
"And we need a stronger communications effort to show the good
we are doing and the heinous crimes the extremists are committing." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7900367.stm>
Skepticism arises over rural broadband stimulus
Yet there's some question whether the economy would be more energized by spending that money on other things.
Because Internet access is already widespread and still being expanded even in a shrinking economy, injecting more money for broadband could simply equate to giving more coffee to someone who's already downed three cups.
"From the rural Vermont that we see, broadband is happening, happening fast," said Michel Guite, president of Vermont Telephone Co., which is based in Springfield.
The company, which serves 21,000 lines, is able to borrow from commercial lenders when it needs to invest in expanding Internet services, Guite said Thursday at a conference organized by the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information.
Although he wouldn't decline cheaper loans from the government, Guite said Congress could help his company better by cutting red tape, particularly when it comes to freeing up spectrum for wireless services.
The stimulus bill provides $7.2 billion for grants, loans and loan guarantees, primarily for areas that lack broadband or are "underserved," though the term is not defined. Some of that money is set aside to expand Internet access at public centers like community colleges and public libraries.
One reason the money won't likely have much impact is its small size: less than 1 percent of the overall stimulus package, and substantially less per citizen than some countries, like Ireland and Sweden, have spent on improving their networks.
The Obama administration is looking at creating a more comprehensive plan to get the whole country covered by broadband, technology adviser Alec Ross told The Washington Post this week, but it's not yet clear if that would mean more subsidies.
A possible point of comparison is phone service for rural areas, which has long been subsidized through a program that has critics, too. A study by Robert Crandall of the Brookings Institution said that the program produces customer savings of about $2 per month for $20 in monthly subsidies. But he conceded that when phone service was being built out, subsidies may have helped.
Larry Sarjeant, vice president of legislative affairs at Qwest Communications International Inc., said the Denver-based phone company could use $3 billion to expand Internet access to 2 million households and small businesses in 14 Western states, many of them thinly populated.
Because Qwest is unlikely to get that large a share of the funds, and the number of households that sign up for service will be smaller still, the net effect would be at most a few hundred thousand new Internet subscribers. Qwest added 236,000 broadband subscribers on its own last year.
In 2007 and 2008, the Pew Internet and American Life Project asked households that lacked broadband why they haven't signed up. Lack of availability was ranked fourth, given by 14 percent. Most answered that they didn't need the Internet, that it was too expensive or too hard to use. Many people who don't use the Internet simply don't have computers.
About 95 percent of households can already get broadband, according to the National Cable & Telecommunications Association. But the industry hasn't been very forthcoming in saying exactly where it's available, and that's part of what the stimulus package wants to address — it has allocated $350 million to mapping US broadband access.
There are signs that the money will do at least some good to rural areas.
A study of 3,000 people in Michigan, Texas and Kentucky found those in areas that received broadband Internet grants from the federal Rural Utilities Service quickly signed up for service, matching the penetration rates in cities. That happened where network investment was coupled with community programs aimed at convincing people about the benefits of Internet access.
Home broadband users were more likely to start businesses or take classes online, and less likely to move away, the researchers at Michigan State University found.
Those positive effects are hard to value.
Raul Katz, a Columbia Business School professor, estimates that the broadband plan will create 128,000 jobs over four years, because it will put installers and equipment makers to work, and those people will then spend the money they make. He's much less certain how many jobs the Internet access itself will create. It could be as many as 273,000 or closer to zero.
Spending the money on traditional infrastructure projects would create slightly more direct jobs: 152,000, according to Katz. That's because more of the money would stay in the United States, as most telecom equipment is assembled in Asia.
Robert Atkinson, president of Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank, believes it's unfair to hold broadband part of the stimulus plan to a higher standard than other investments.
"We know for sure that it will create jobs," he said. Everyone is going to have Internet access at some point, and the stimulus is "an amazing opportunity" to get five or 10 years ahead on that, he added.
So who benefits on the company side? Qwest chief executive Ed Mueller told investors and analysts last week that there would be "some upside" for the company in the stimulus, but that $7 billion would be spread pretty thin over the country.
Blair Levin, managing director and analyst at brokerage Stifel Nicolaus, believes smaller phone companies will benefit more than larger, but the money won't make a major difference.
"I don't think it will affect the competitive dynamic much," he said. - AP <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/149650/Skepticism-arises-over-rural-broadband-stimulus>
'Superguns' of Elizabeth I's navy
Test firing a replica Elizabethan cannon
Tests on cannon recovered from an Elizabethan warship suggest it carried powerful cast iron guns, of uniform size, firing standard ammunition.
"This marked the beginning of a kind of mechanisation of war," says naval historian Professor Eric Grove of Salford University.
"The ship is now a gun platform in a way that it wasn't before."
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FIND OUT MORE
Timewatch: Elizabeth's Lost Guns
BBC Two, 2000 GMT, Sat 21 Feb
It is also available to UK viewers for seven days on the BBC iPlayer
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"[Her] navy made a giant leap forward in the way men fought at sea, years ahead of England's enemies, and which was still being used to devastating effect by Nelson 200 years later."
Deadly artillery
Until now, it was thought Queen Elizabeth was using the same cannon technology as her father, Henry VIII. His flagship, the Mary Rose, was ultra-modern for its day.
However, it carried a bewildering variety of cannon - many designed for land warfare. They were all of different shapes and sizes, fired different shot at different rates with different killing power.
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Elizabeth's navy created the first ever set of uniform cannon, capable of firing the same size shot in a deadly barrage
Mensun Bound, Marine archaeologist
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It is known that during Elizabeth's reign, English sailors and gunners became greatly feared. For example, at the beginning of Henry VIII's reign, the English fleet was forced to retreat from heavily armed French galleys.
By the time of Elizabeth, even Phillip of Spain was warning of the deadly English artillery. But no-one has ever been able to clearly show why this was.
The new research follows the discovery of the first wreck of an Elizabethan fighting ship off Alderney in the Channel Islands, thought to date from around 1592, just four years after the Spanish Armada.
The ship was a pinnace, a small ship carrying 12 guns, two of which have been recovered.
"There's a very good chance this ship fought against the Armada with its revolutionary guns, but there's no proof that all or even some of the others were armed similarly," says Saul David, historian and presenter of a BBC Timewatch documentary about the guns.
"Bear in mind that our ship is a pinnace and not a full-size warship. So it is probably going too far to say these guns defeated the Armada four years earlier.
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Saul David and Mensun Bound examine a recovered cannon
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"But they certainly represent a huge leap forward in military technology and may have contributed to the Spanish defeat."
Spain attempted to invade England in 1588 with 200 ships. The Spanish were unable to overcome the English navy, but there were also other reasons for the defeat.
The English used fire ships in a night attack, the Spanish lacked a good deep water harbour to load their troops and they were eventually scattered by a storm.
At the time, Spain was Europe's superpower and Philip II wanted Elizabeth's throne and to return England to Catholicism. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7899831.stm>
Clock ticking for Swiss bank secrecy
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By Imogen Foulkes
BBC News, Geneva |
The decision by Switzerland's biggest bank, UBS, to hand over details of a few hundred US clients to the US authorities has shocked the Swiss banking community, and led many to the conclusion that the days of Swiss banking secrecy are now numbered.
UBS had already admitted that some of its US staff helped wealthy American clients avoid paying tax by hiding money in Swiss bank accounts.
However, on Wednesday it handed over the client details, together with a compensation payment of $780m (£549m), before the legal process had even finished.
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It
became evident that if the American authorities would bring UBS to an
indictment... the whole threat would have been falling also on our
economy
Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz
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The Swiss government, which approved UBS's actions in a late-night emergency cabinet meeting, said the bank had no choice.
The US Department of Justice had issued Switzerland with a deadline which, had it not been met, could have led to UBS losing its US operating licence.
Swiss President and Finance Minister Hans-Rudolf Merz said the move would have threatened the very existence of the bank, and with it, the Swiss economy.
Under pressure
But many Swiss politicians and bankers are outraged at what they see as the Swiss government's weakness in the face of unfair pressure from the US.
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UBS hoped that settling with the US would safeguard banking secrecy
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"This is a clear case of power triumphing over the law," said Gabi Huber, member of parliament with the centre-right Radical Party.
"Switzerland's banking secrecy has been put under real pressure."
Hans Geiger, emeritus professor of banking at the University of Zurich, said he was astonished at the "unbelievable weakness" of the government.
And Toni Brunner, president of the right-wing Swiss People's Party, went even further.
"We are a sovereign state, and other countries should not be
able to tell us what to do," he said. "It's time to enshrine banking
secrecy in our constitution." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7901832.stm>
Italy passes emergency rape law
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Mr Berlusconi says that the number of sexual assaults fell 10% last year
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The decree sets a mandatory life sentence for the rape of minors or attacks where the victim is killed.
It also establishes rules for citizen street patrols to be conducted by unarmed and unpaid volunteers.
The number of sexual assaults fell last year, but three high-profile rapes last weekend sparked national outrage.
These included the rape of 14-year-old girl in a park in Rome on Saturday, allegedly by two men from Eastern Europe.
A Bolivian woman was raped in Milan by a man described as North African, while in Bologna, a Tunisian who had just been released from prison was re-arrested for allegedly raping a 15-year-old girl.
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Volunteers who take part in patrols will not be armed but they will have mobile phones and radios
Interior Minister Roberto Maroni
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The decree, passed by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's conservative government, goes into effect immediately but must be approved by both houses of parliament within 60 days.
It speeds up trials for sex offenders caught in the act, takes away the possibility of house arrest, and gives free legal assistance to victims.
It also sets rules for citizen street patrols, in which officials said retired police and soldiers would play a major role.
"Volunteers who take part in patrols will not be armed but they will have mobile phones and radios for reporting things to security forces," said Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, a member of the anti-immigrant Northern League.
Local mayors would decide "how, where and when to use these volunteers", he said.
Critics say the measures could effectively legitimise vigilantism and xenophobia. The Vatican has warned against anything that turns innocent foreigners into convenient scapegoats. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7902107.stm>
Ryanair to abolish check-in desks
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Ryanair says it wants to abolish check-in desks to save money
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From the start of 2010, all Ryanair passengers will need to check in online in order to confirm their flights.
Officials at the Irish airline said that by reducing its costs at airports, savings would be passed on to passengers through lower fares.
The carrier said that 75% of its passengers already checked in online.
Spokesman Stephen McNamara said the airline saw the move as the "logical next step" in an effort to pass on savings to passengers through reduced fares.
Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary told the Daily Telegraph that passengers will be able to leave their luggage at a bag drop but otherwise everything will be done online.
"Ultimately, we want just one in five people to check in luggage," he said.
The carrier said that 97% of passengers booked online already and 75% used the internet to check in. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7903656.stm>
Man links Legacy Group’s Delos Angeles to 'syndicate'
In a letter sent to the House committee on banks and financial intermediaries, Ramon Diño of the Legacy Group Citizens' Crime Watch Center said Delos Angeles is a member of a syndicate that has links with several government agencies.
"This group is no ordinary syndicate. They are extremely intelligent, morally deprived and ruthless, and well-connected individuals. We should never never underestimate their clout and connections," Diño said.
Diño said he is "morally convinced" that the "criminal syndicate" is composed of Delos Angeles, his inner core of Legacy group officers, and high-ranking government officials from the Monetary Board, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp.
He added that the so-called syndicate also includes members of Congress, of the judiciary, of the National Bureau of Investigation, and of the military and the police.
Attached to Diño's letter is a 40-page sworn statement dated Feb. 12, 2009 "stating practically all that I (Diño ) know about Mr. Celso de los Angeles Jr., and his corporate conglomerate and syndicated swindlers."
In a Senate hearing early this month, Delos Angeles claimed Diño tried to extort money from him.
At the resumption of the House's hearing on the Legacy Group's controversy Monday, Delos Angeles maintained his allegations against Diño, who he said had tried to extort money from him twice.
The businessman also said that he has pictures to prove Diño was arrested by operatives from the Crime Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in an entrapment operation a few years ago.
"He has always been demanding money, your honor," Delos Angeles said.
Derogatory information
He said Diño tries to extort money before distributing "derogatory information" against Legacy Group's banks.
He added that he sought the help of the National Bureau of Investigation the first time Diño supposedly attempted to extort money, of which a case is now pending in a Makati City court.
At another time, Diño "again demanded payment or else he would again come out and do what he did - distribute derogatory information regarding the banks and myself," said Delos Angeles.
He said, that was the time he sought the CIDG's help.
For his part, House panel chair and Manila Rep. Jaime Lopez said Diño will be invited in the next hearing to substantiate his claims.
But Diño said in his letter that he was "not inclined to attend any investigation hearing on the matter.
"As much as possible, I do no want to testify before the Senate, the House of Representatives, or in any other forum since this will just accelerate whatever evil plans my enemies have of me. I am providing you these documents to enable you to appreciate that facts of this multi-billion scam better all in aid of your work as legislator," Diño said.
The spate of closures of rural banks under the Legacy Group had prompted the House to conduct a probe into the matter. The string of closures of the company's pre-need firms is also the subject of a Senate inquiry. - Johanna Camille Sisante with a report from Sophia Dedace, GMANews.TV <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/149958/Man-links-Legacy-Groups-Delos-Angeles-to-syndicate>
Blast brings carnage to Cairo bazaar
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By Yolande Knell
BBC News, Cairo |
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Security forces cordoned off the area after the blast
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At night Khan al-Khalili, the sprawling 600-year-old bazaar in the heart of Cairo's Islamic Quarter, comes to life.
Locals and tourists fill the restaurants and coffee-shops - made famous by the writer Neguib Mahfouz - and stall-holders noisily hawk souvenirs and handicrafts.
On Sunday evening, witnesses described how the bustling scene turned to chaos and carnage following an explosion outside a cafe in the square by the Hussein mosque.
A middle-aged man, Mahmoud, said he heard a loud blast as he emerged from a nearby underpass.
"I saw children and a man who I thought was dead lying sprawled out on the ground. I saw someone's hand or foot - I'm not sure what it was - and a lot of blood.
"People started running in all directions and they were stepping on those who were still lying down because they were panicking. They were running for their lives."
Conflicting reports
A young French woman was killed by the bombing. More than 20 people - most of them French - were injured. Orange ambulances with their sirens blaring took them away to hospitals.
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We just came out to get something to eat and go shopping, then we felt the earth shaking and there were loud shouts
German tourist in Khan al-Khalili
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Security forces arrived quickly to cordon off the market area and holiday-makers, some pale from shock, were hurried past waiting journalists.
"I don't know what happened," said one German man. "We just came out to get something to eat and go shopping, then we felt the earth shaking and there were loud shouts. It was frightening."
There were conflicting reports of what had happened at the scene. Some sources said explosives were left under a bench in a plastic bag.
A member of parliament, Haidar Baghdadi, who was briefed by Interior Ministry officials, told reporters: "It seems that two bombs were dropped from the rooftop of the Hussein Hotel. The second device did not explode but it's been made safe. Police held all the guests in the hotel and searched them but the building has two exits."
The authorities are now reported to have made arrests in connection with the attack but Mr Baghdadi confirmed that no group had claimed responsibility. Asked who he thought was to blame, he replied: "An Islamic radical movement."
Fears for business
There was a series of deadly bombings in Egypt between 2004 and 2006. The last in Cairo took place in the same neighbourhood where a suicide bomber killed three tourists. The authorities said militants loyal to al-Qaeda were behind explosions which took place at Red Sea holiday resorts.
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EGYPT ATTACKS
April 2006: Bombs at Dahab, on the Red Sea, kill at least 23
April 2005: Bombing at Khan al-Khalili kills three people, including Frenchman and American
July 2005: At least 88 people die in bomb attacks in Sharm el-Sheikh, on the Red Sea
March 2005: Hungarian couple stabbed while kissing near Khan al-Khalili
Oct 2004: Bombs at Red Sea resorts of Taba and Nuweiba kill at least 34 people
1997: Gunmen fire on tourists in Cairo and in Luxor, killing 68
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Tourism took time to recover from such events, but has since boomed. Last year, more than 12 million visitors came to Egypt.
Already there were fears of a drop in numbers with the effects of a global economic slowdown taking hold. Business owners in Khan al-Khalili are now worried holiday-makers will be scared away.
"God curse them, whoever did this," railed Gamillah, who runs two shops within view of the Hussein mosque. "Honestly, they have hurt all the people in this area. This is a commercial district and a place for tourists. A lot of people work here. I have 20 workers - that means 20 families relying on my business. This is not fair."
"We ask God to help us and we tell all the world that Egypt is safe."<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7904977.stm>
Child prostitutes rescued in US
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The operation targeted the trafficking of children for prostitution
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More than 570 suspects were arrested during the action, which took place over three nights.
FBI agents and local police forces were involved in the operations which spanned some 29 cities.
Officials say a 16-year-old girl who recruits children as prostitutes is being sought as a priority.
Special Agent Melissa Morrow, of Washington's FBI, said adult prostitutes who were among those arrested tipped authorities off about the girl.
"She is currently 16 and started when she was 13," Agent Morrow said.
"Now she is out there recruiting other juveniles as well," she said, adding that finding her was "at the top of our list", the Associated Press news agency reported. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7906616.stm>
Scores of Zimbabwe farms 'seized'
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There are said to be about 400 white-owned farms left in Zimbabwe
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Commercial Farmers Union President Trevor Gifford said 77 properties had been occupied in the last fortnight.
MPs, police, the military and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe officials had taken part in the invasions, he said.
Many of the farmers targeted recently mounted a successful legal challenge to government land reforms, he added.
The BBC attempted to contact a number of officials from President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party - including the ministers of agriculture and lands - but no-one was available to comment on the farmers' union claims.
Attempts to contact the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), whose leader Morgan Tsvangirai was sworn in as prime minister earlier this month, were also unsuccessful.
The Southern African Development Community (Sadc) Tribunal ruled in November the Zimbabwe government's programme of seizing white-owned property for redistribution to landless black farmers was discriminatory and illegal.
The government said at the time that it would not comply with the ruling. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7906031.stm>
Crisis in the US newspaper industry
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By Max Deveson
BBC News, Washington |
If the economic crisis goes on much longer, will there be any newspapers left in the US to write about it?
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The Chronicle's owners are set to decide whether to shut down the paper
|
America's newspaper industry has been badly hit by the downturn, and a number of titles face closure.
The latest casualty is the venerable San Francisco Chronicle, whose owners on Wednesday announced they were planning to cut a "significant" number of jobs to meet cost-cutting targets, and that if the targets are not met, then the paper would be sold or closed down.
The Chronicle, which was founded in 1865, soon after the gold-rush hit California, lost more than $50m (£35m) in 2008, and so far 2009 is looking even worse for the title.
Circulation fell by 7% in the six-month period running up to 30 September 2008, and advertising revenues are plummeting.
The Hearst Corporation - the Chronicle's owners - last month proposed similar measures for another of their titles, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
And the owners of Denver's Rocky Mountain News announced on
Thursday that the newspaper would publish its final edition on Friday.
The Tucson Citizen also faces the axe. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7913400.stm>
Downturn hits Philippine remittances
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By Jill McGivering
BBC News, Manila |
|
Jobs at home in the Philippines and abroad are harder to find
|
In the Philippines, about eight million people - one in 10 adults - work abroad.
Millions of families depend on the money they send back.
But now a crisis is looming - as the economic downturn means thousands are losing their jobs overseas and being sent home.
Migrant workers are called "the new heroes" in the Philippines because of the contribution they make to the national economy.
The money they send home to their relatives is crucial, paying for food, shelter and education.
But now a growing number - already in the thousands - are being forced home because they have lost their jobs. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7911698.stm>
Kenya sleaze book sparks shop ban
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By Juliet Njeri
BBC News, Nairobi |
A new book about exiled Kenyan corruption whistleblower John Githongo is considered so potentially explosive that some major book shops in Nairobi are refusing to stock it.
Author Michela Wrong's expose looks set to cause further embarrassment to Kenya's public servants amid public anger at continued allegations of high-level corruption.
The title - It's Our Turn to Eat - may evoke thoughts of sitting down to lunch or dinner for most readers around the world.
But in Kenya, this simple phrase is filled with sinister meaning that symbolises the rot crippling the East African country.
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Right now, all of Kenya is in danger
John Githongo
|
In the past, Kenya's resources were known as the "national cake", to be shared among its citizens by the government.
Political power was seen as an opportunity, even duty, to "eat" as much of the national cake as they could, and share with those closest to them.
'Massive looting'
Perhaps this was the inspiration for the phrase that would later grace the cover of a book about Mr Githongo, the man who tried to stop the "eating" going on at the very top table.
Mr Githongo is described by Wrong as "a remarkable man who did something quite astounding".
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We don't have it because it can bring problems, you never know with this government
Nairobi book shop owner
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A former adviser to President Mwai Kibaki, Mr Githongo fled to the UK in 2005 claiming that his life was in danger after accusing top government officials of "massive looting".
A former journalist and the founding director of Transparency International-Kenya, Mr Githongo had earned himself a stellar reputation in the fight against corruption.
When he was appointed, many in the country believed he was the only man who could fight the deadly scourge.
Instead, he faced decisions with huge personal consequences.
And he was called a traitor and coward by the officials who had put him in that awkward position in the first place. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7911007.stm>
Ryanair mulls charge for toilets
Michael O'Leary: 'People might have to spend a pound to spend a penny'
Chief executive Michael O'Leary told the BBC that the Dublin-based carrier was looking at maybe installing a "coin slot on the toilet door".
Consumer group Which? said the airline was putting "profit before passengers".
Last week Ryanair confirmed it planned to close all of its airport check-in desks by the end of the year in a bid to reduce the cost of its flights.
'Fast buck'
Ryanair aims to offer low basic ticket prices, and then charge extra for items such as checking in at the airport or for additional luggage.
"One thing we have looked at in the past, and are looking at again, is the possibility of maybe putting a coin slot on the toilet door, so that people might actually have to spend a pound to spend a penny in future," he told the BBC.
He added: "I don't think there is anybody in history that has got on board a Ryanair aircraft with less than a pound."
But Rochelle Turner, head of research at Which? Holiday, said: "It seems Ryanair is prepared to plumb any depth to make a fast buck and, once again, is putting profit before the comfort of its customers.
"Charging people to go to the toilet might result in fewer people buying overpriced drinks on board, though - that would serve Ryanair right." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7914542.stm>
Hungarians feel force of economic storm
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By Jonny Dymond
Europe correspondent, BBC News, Budapest |
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Hungarians are suffering as the economic crisis takes its toll
|
Standing in the small space between a double sofa bed and another sofa in his two room apartment in Budapest's 7th district Istvan Rakitovski exudes not anger but bafflement.
Ishtvan lost his job as a construction work last year. His employer failed to pay him for the last eight months work.
In lieu of repayments, the loan company he got his mortgage from have sold the flat he lives in to somebody else.
His family cannot take him in and the government will offer him no help. Over and over again he says that he and his wife, Beata do not know what they will do or where they will go.
A photo on the sideboard of his eight year old daughter is adorned with shiny stickers in the shape of hearts
Come Sunday, he says, they'll all be on the streets.
"I knew the risks of getting a loan," he says.
"But I worked hard, I did everything. I did my best."
Troubled firms
Ishtvan and Beata are at the very roughest end of Hungary's economic crisis.
It's a crisis that looks not so much a cyclical downturn, but almost a failure of the capitalism that has only come relatively recently to once-Communist Hungary.
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Customers are hit by the recession
Zoltan Kaska, supply chain director
|
"People still think here, in the former Communist countries, that the state is responsible for everything" says analyst Krisztian Szabados, director of the consultancy Political Capital.
"Political parties always campaigned here with spending promises. This is why the Hungarian budget was in ruins when the crisis [hit]."
But now, as recession has swept Europe, companies are crying out for help.
Out in the suburbs of Budapest, where snow makes the fields and roadsides almost painfully bright, the Hungarian headquarters of the tailors Berwin and Berwin have a troubled feel to them.
Back in 2000, when Hungarian labour was cheap and textile tariffs protected the market, Berwin set up four factories in Hungary.
Over the years three went to China. Now the last one, says supply chain director Zoltan Kaska, is threatened by the retail pain being felt in Britain and France.
Orders for suits he says, have fallen by two thirds. Glumly, Zoltan states the case:
"Customers are hit by the recession. Less and less people buy products. Cheaper locations are needed."
"If we have help to stabilise the situation, then we have a
future. If not, then I don't see how the company can stay in Hungary." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7916042.stm>
Asean group seeks economic action
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The members considered human rights and financial issues
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The 10 countries in the Asean group endorsed measures to stimulate economic activity, ease access to credit, and stand firm against trade protectionism.
They also called for reform of the international financial system to take more account of developing countries.
Their regional grouping also aims to be an economic community by 2015.
The Association of South East Asian Nations' statement at the end of its summit in Thailand included the goal of a forming a community similar to the European Union.
However, the nations stressed that the EU was an inspiration and not a model.
It is clear from the limited progress that integration of the diverse countries is likely to take long than six years, says BBC correspondent Jonathan Head in Bangkok.
Human rights were a particular issue for the grouping, which includes non-democratic countries Burma and Vietnam.
Asean also made much of its first charter of rules - but it has
established no mechanism for enforcing them on its members, our
correspondent adds. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7917323.stm>
Crisis tightens grip across Europe
Designer baby row over US clinic
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Parents can select hair and eye colour
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The LA Fertility Institutes run by Dr Jeff Steinberg, a pioneer of IVF in the 1970s, expects a trait-selected baby to be born next year.
His clinic also offers sex selection.
UK fertility experts are angered that the service will distract attention from how the same technology can protect against inherited disease.
The science is based on a lab technique called preimplantation genetic diagnosis, or PGD.
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I would not say this is a dangerous road. It's an uncharted road
Dr Steinberg
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This involves testing a cell taken from a very early embryo before it is put into the mother's womb.
Doctors then select an embryo free from rogue genes - or in this case an embryo with the desired physical traits such as blonde hair and blue eyes - to continue the pregnancy, and discard any others.
Dr Steinberg said couples might seek to use the clinic's services for both medical and cosmetic reasons.
For example, a couple might want to have a baby with a darker complexion to help guard against a skin cancer if they already had a child who had developed a melanoma. But others might just want a boy with blonde hair.
His clinic is offering this cosmetic selection to patients already having genetic screening for abnormal chromosome conditions in their embryos.
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This
is the inevitable slippery slope of a fertility process which results
in many more embryos being created than can be implanted
Josephine Quintavalle of Comment on Reproductive Ethics
|
"Not all patients will qualify for these tests and we make NO guarantees as to 'perfect prediction' of things such as eye colour or hair colour," says the clinic's website.
Dr Steinberg said: "I would not say this is a dangerous road. It's an uncharted road."
He said the capability to offer such services had been around for years, but had been ignored by the medical community.
"It's time for everyone to pull their heads out of the sand." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7918296.stm>
A Rock of stability in troubled times
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By Steve Kingstone
BBC News, Gibraltar |
At the Gibraltar border, a steady stream of pedestrians and vehicles enters the territory. It is mid-morning, and the Spanish are coming.
Overhead, the Union flag flutters nervously, as it has, in one form or other, since Spain ceded the Rock to the UK in 1713.
But in 2009 there is no cause for alarm. The incoming Spaniards are here not to demand sovereignty, but to shop.
|
In November and December last year, what we saw for the first time were Spaniards coming in almost as a matter of habit
Edward Macquisten
Gibraltar Chamber of Commerce |
Many head straight for the Gibraltar branch of the supermarket Morrisons, to take advantage of an exchange rate which has shifted dramatically in their favour.
Over the past two years, sterling has lost almost a third of its value against the euro, giving Spanish day-trippers considerable clout at the check-out.
"I do much of my weekly shop in Gibraltar and so do a lot of my friends," says Manuela, who lives across the frontier in the Spanish town of San Roque.
"Today, I've come to buy cheese, sugar, cigarettes and whisky - because they're far cheaper here."
Exchange rate tourism became especially popular in the lead-up to Christmas, as the pound sank perilously close to parity with the euro.
Increasingly, Spaniards have added a supermarket run to more traditional shopping excursions for perfume or electronic goods.
"In November and December last year, what we saw for the first time were Spaniards coming in almost as a matter of habit," says Edward Macquisten, chief executive of the Gibraltar Chamber of Commerce.
"This was previously unthinkable, because food was never
cheaper here," he continues. "But now, because of the strength of the
euro, Spaniards are voting with their wallets." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7905804.stm>
New guidelines on behavioural ads
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UK ISPs stand to make a lot of money from targeted advertising
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The code of practice drawn up by the Internet Advertising Bureau looks specifically at behavioural advertising.
This form of advertising delivers ads based on people's browsing activity and is therefore far more targeted.
UK ISP BT is planning to roll out such advertising developed by US firm Phorm.
The guidelines which have been signed by key players including Phorm, AOL, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo agree on three core commitments:
Consent. A company collecting and using online data for behavioural advertising must provide a mechanism for users to decline behavioural advertising and where applicable seek a consumer's consent.
Education. A company collecting and using online data for behavioural advertising must provide consumer with clear and simple information about their use of data for this purpose and how users can decline. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7921996.stm>
Poor being hit by crisis says IMF
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The IMF says it sees mounting problems for developing countries
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And they are likely to need $25bn (£18bn) in additional financing this year, the organisation says.
The IMF describes it as the "third wave" of the downturn; after first affecting the advanced and then the emerging economies.
And it is calling on donor countries not to cut back on their support.
In a new report, the IMF says poor countries face greater exposure to the current crisis because they are more integrated into the international economy than they used to be.
They are likely to feel the impact through a downturn in trade
and falls in foreign investment and remittances - money sent home by
people working abroad, the fund adds. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7922661.stm>
User info stolen from music site
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More than 250,000 people in Britain have signed up to the service
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The Swedish company says people's personal details, including e-mail addresses, dates of birth and billing addresses, were all stolen.
However, it is thought credit-card details, which were handled by a third party, have remained secure.
Spotify has apologised for the security lapse and advised users who registered on the site before 19 December 2008 to change their passwords.
It is thought hackers gained access to user data
at the end of 2008, although the security breach only came to light at
the end of last week. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7925455.stm>
Strained marriages 'harm women'
US psychologists found wives in tense marriages were prone to risk factors for heart disease, stroke and diabetes.
In comparison, husbands seemed relatively immune from such problems.
Details of the study, based on 276 couples who had been married for an average of 20 years were presented to the American Psychosomatic Society.
Each couple filled out questionnaires designed to assess the good and bad aspects of married life.
|
METABOLIC SYNDROME
High blood pressure
Bulging waistline
High blood sugar
High triglyceride levels
Low levels of "good" cholesterol
|
Doctors then carried out a battery of tests to assess whether or not the volunteers were showing signs of metabolic syndrome - a collection of symptoms pointing to a raised risk of serious disease, such as heart problems.
Women in strained marriages were more likely to be depressed and to have a greater number of symptoms of metabolic syndrome.
But although husbands in unhappy marriages were also depressed, they did not show signs of physiological damage to their health.
Researcher Nancy Henry, from the University of Utah, said the
team had expected to find that negative aspects of a bad marriage, such
as arguing and being angry, would translate into both mental and
physical problems for both sexes. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7925360.stm>
Adapting to climate change in Archangel
It is -25C and the unrelenting sub-polar wind makes it feel even colder.
Frostbite is a constant danger. As we prepare to head out onto the ice of the White Sea, I notice that everyone around me is covering every part of their skin except that around their eyes. I do the same.
It does not sound like ideal working conditions. In fact, it is the kind of weather the people here say is lacking.
I am with a team of herring fishermen. Their base is the Lenin collective farm, in the village of Tamitsa, about two hours by road from the northern Russian port city of Archangel.
We head out onto the sea ice, travelling about five kilometres in sledges drawn by snowmobiles.
A line of branches stuck in the ice marks our route; the final one, our destination.
The men fish by cutting holes in the sea's frozen surface, lowering their nets, and returning with each tide to retrieve their catch.
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Herring hauls are not as large as they used to be
|
This has not been a good year. The day I travel with them, the haul is pitifully small. "Tears, not fish," remarks one of the fishermen, as a few herring flap at his feet.
"We used to catch up to 10 tonnes of fish in a net like this," Andrei Yurchenkov, the collective farm's director said, as we watched the catch emerge from beneath the ice.
"Now you can see for yourself - there's no fish at all. And
this has already been going on for two weeks, right from the start of
the season." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7928758.stm>
Medical waste scandal scars Gujarat
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By Nadene Ghouri in Gujarat
|
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Some medical waste was gathered by staff and sold for reuse
|
The outbreak has been traced to used and dirty hypodermic needles which should have been incinerated but instead were simply washed, repackaged and sold back into the medical industry for reuse.
Within the past week police have discovered a staggering 75 tonnes of neatly packaged waste - including needles, paediatric droppers and syringes - waiting to be resold to private medical clinics.
Police describe the waste scandal as a "serious organised crime racket". <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7927959.stm>
Firms in data row deny wrongdoing
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Some workers who raised safety issues were allegedly blacklisted
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The Information Commissioner says a firm called the Consulting Association flagged up workers who had raised safety concerns or who had union links.
Balfour Beatty and Amec said they did not condone "blacklisting". Emcor and Laing O'Rourke denied discriminating against workers on any grounds.
The Department for Business said it would consider outlawing blacklisting.
This would happen if evidence showed it was going on, a spokesman said.
Unions have called on the government to act swiftly to pass
anti-blacklisting regulations which were prepared in the 1990s but
never introduced. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7928807.stm>
France considers redrawing the map
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By Alasdair Sandford
BBC News, Paris |
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has launched a controversial plan to alter the political map of France via a shake-up of local and regional government.
But in the face of fierce opposition to ideas to merge regions, do away with entire departements or counties, and create a "Greater Paris", some of the more radical proposals have been shelved.
The multi-layered structure of French government has been compared to a millefeuille, the renowned cream and pastry dessert.
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Out of the question to meddle with the Auvergne!
French minister
|
Sitting on top of more than 36,000 communes are 4,000 cantons, 100 departements, 22 regions, and finally the imposing weight of the centralised national government in Paris.
As one politician put it, France is trying to make the millefeuille more digestible.
But the ideas, put forward by a committee chaired by the former Prime Minister Edouard Balladur, have brought cries of fury around the country - and some dissent within the government.
Names left out
"Out of the question to meddle with the Auvergne!" said one junior minister, trying to appease local anguish that the Massif Central region might be merged with neighbouring Limousin.
To placate the outcry, the names of regions have been left out of the final report submitted to President Sarkozy.
Also on hold are plans to let Brittany swallow up the Loire-Atlantique, and to do away with the Poitou-Charentes region - a move that, for her opponents, would have conveniently zapped former Socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royal's local power base.
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Plans to merge the troubled suburbs with Paris have been shelved
|
Many Socialists see the reforms as an attempt to reduce their influence in regions where they have large majorities.
However, the government says it wants to make the system simpler, more efficient and less expensive.
Some of the loudest protests have come from Picardy, to the north of Paris.
There is a strong sense of regional identity and pride that the area has its own language, Picard.
Tens of thousands of people have signed a petition and a website is being created, objecting to the proposal to split the area between the Parisian metropolis and the north.
Xavier Bertrand, head of the centre-right governing UMP party and one of the president's inner circle, effectively backed his native region by calling for a referendum over any move to alter its boundaries.
The idea for a "Greater Paris" may not see the light of day for some time.
At present the French capital and its two million residents are hemmed in by a boundary defined by the peripherique ring road, beyond which stretch the suburban towns and poor housing estates of the banlieue.
There has been a long debate over how to improve the relationship between the two.
The Balladur plan wanted a larger Paris to engulf three neighbouring departements.
Opposition Socialists, and in particular the mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe, argued strongly for a Paris-Metropole to include all the surrounding areas.
Because of the lack of consensus, President Sarkozy has sent the project back to the drawing board. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7928851.stm>
Enzyme behind cancer spread found
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Breast cancer cells can spread to other parts of the body
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Cancer metastasis, where the cancer spreads from its original location, is known to be responsible for 90% of cancer-related deaths.
Institute of Cancer Research scientists have found that an enzyme called LOX is crucial in promoting metastasis, Cancer Cell journal reports.
Drugs to block this enzyme's action could keep cancer at bay, they hope.
The researchers studied breast cancer in mice, but are confident that their findings will apply to humans with other cancer types too.
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This new discovery provides real hope that we can develop a drug which will fight the spreading of cancer
Lead researcher Dr Janine Erler
|
LOX (lysyl oxidase) works by sending out signals to prepare a new area of the body for the cancer to set up a camp. Without this preparation process the new environment would be too hostile for the cancer to grow.
Lead researcher Dr Janine Erler described the discovery as "the crucial missing piece in the jigsaw that scientists have been searching for."
She said it was the first time one key enzyme has been identified as responsible for effectively allowing the cancer to spread.
"If we can interrupt the body's ability to prepare new locations for the cancer to spread to, we can effectively prevent cancer metastasis.
"Cancer metastasis is very difficult to treat and this new discovery provides real hope that we can develop a drug which will fight the spreading of cancer," she said.
Dr Julie Sharp, Cancer Research UK's science information
manager, said: "A better understanding of how cancer spreads is crucial
to improving the treatment of the disease. This research takes
scientists a step closer to understanding this major problem - the next
stage will be to find out if the LOX protein can be switched off to
stop cancer spreading." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7813072.stm>
Modular Windows plan 'welcomed'
|
By Daniel Emery
Technology reporter, BBC News |
Windows 7 was unveiled at Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference in LA
Windows Features allows users to turn off applications such as Media Centre, Media Player and Internet Explorer.
Professor Neil Barrett said this would help promote effective competition.
EU regulators have ended full-time monitoring of Microsoft, which was started to ensure the firm complied with an anti-trust ruling.
Speaking to the BBC, Professor Barrett said it was a welcome move on all fronts.
"Microsoft did this off their own bat. From their perspective, making the operating system modular is a good thing.
"For competitors, this will allow them to compete on all fronts.
"It also benefits European Commission monitoring, as this will give them a clear understanding of what would be needed in the future should other firms fall foul of anti-trust laws."
Microsoft is currently facing an anti-trust filing led by browser maker Opera, and supported by Mozilla, the makers of Firefox, and Google, who last year launched Chrome.
The companies have complained that Microsoft's bundling of Internet Explorer into Windows XP and Vista is anti-competitive.
Time line
In 2004, a legal ruling forced Microsoft to share information about the internal workings of its software with rivals. It was also hit with a 497m euro (£441m) fine for abusing its dominant market position that stopped rivals prospering in the desktop and server software markets.
The ruling forced it to unbundle some of the products included in standard installations of Windows such as Media Player.
The 2004 decision also made Microsoft pass information about its operating systems to rivals so they could improve the way their programs worked with the software.
Microsoft appealed against and lost the court battle to overturn the fine and was then hit with another penalty of 899m euros (£798m) in February 2008 for defying the initial ruling.
Professor Barrett said part of the problem was that the US and EU operate in very different ways.
"US firms follow the Harvard school of competition: find a market, dominate that market and then use that domination to beat the competition into submission.
"US firms come here, speak the same language (especially in Britain), and think they are working in an identical environment.
"They're not, because in Europe, that type business model isn't remotely fair." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7932149.stm>
Israeli West Bank mines 'illegal'
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Yesh Din said Israel's mining broke international laws
|
The group, Yesh Din, accuses Israel of breaking international law by exploiting the occupied territory's resources for its own gain.
It says Israel has never conducted a thorough review of the practice.
But Israel says the procedures are in line with both international law and agreements with the Palestinians.
Yesh Din cites military documents which show nine million of the 12 million tonnes of rock and gravel mined in the West Bank each year are sold in Israel - and says Israel is "addicted to the exploitation".
It says its High Court petition addresses "the illegal practice of brutal economic exploitation of a conquered territory to serve the exclusive economic needs of the occupying power".
'Pillage'
"According to international law, this kind of activity is a violation of occupation laws as well as of human rights laws and, in certain cases, might be defined as pillage," says the petition.
Long-term Israeli construction plans show the authorities intend to rely on the continued use of materials taken from the West Bank over the next 30 years, says the group, leaving the territory "empty of natural resources".
Israel, which has occupied the West Bank since 1967, has rejected the accusations.
Military spokesman Miki Galin said all mining operations were carried out in line with "the relevant directives of international law" and agreements with Palestinians.
"The Civil Administration is carrying out staff work to
evaluate the up-to-date policy regarding the operation of the
quarries," he said. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7933155.stm>
YouTube to block UK music videos
|
By Darren Waters
Technology editor, BBC News website |
|
Premium music videos will not be accessible to UK YouTube users
|
YouTube is blocking all premium music videos to UK users after failing to reach a new licensing agreement with the Performing Right Society (PRS).
Thousands of videos will be unavailable to YouTube users from later on Monday.
Patrick Walker, YouTube's director of video partnerships, told BBC News that the move was "regrettable".
Steve Porter, head of the PRS, said he was "outraged... shocked and disappointed" by YouTube's decision.
In a statement, Mr Porter said the move "punishes British consumers and the songwriters whose interests we protect and represent".
The PRS has asked YouTube to reconsider its decision as a "matter of urgency".
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This action has been taken without any consultation with PRS for Music and in the middle of negotiations between the two parties
PRS statement
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The body, which represents music publishers, added: "Google has told us they are taking this step because they wish to pay significantly less than at present to the writers of the music on which their service relies, despite the massive increase in YouTube viewing.
"This action has been taken without any consultation with PRS for Music and in the middle of negotiations between the two parties."
Mr Walker told BBC News the PRS was seeking a rise in fees "many, many factors" higher than the previous agreement.
He said: "We feel we are so far apart that we have to remove content while we continue to negotiate with the PRS."
"We are making the message public because it will be noticeable to users on the site." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7933565.stm>
Warning over US broadband funding
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By Maggie Shiels
Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley |
|
Pressure groups see broadband investment as vital to the US economy
|
US agencies in charge of more than $7bn (£5bn) in grants for high-speed broadband networks have been urged to deliver the "best bang for the buck".
The Free Press, which represents consumers, made the call ahead of a meeting where federal bodies will discuss how the grants should be spent.
The money is part of an overall $787bn package bill to stimulate the economy.
"It all hinges on getting the policy right to make sure the money is spent right" said the Free Press's Ben Scott.
"We're going into an extraordinary period where the government is directly investing in broadband infrastructure.
"This process of handing out $7bn, although there's a great deal of urgency to get the money out the door, must fundamentally be data driven.
"We need to make sure the money is spent wisely," added Mr Scott who likened this period to that of previous big public spending programmes involving electrification and the highways.
'Lighting-fast'
Technology companies, telecommunications service providers and other internet service providers will compete for the grant money through a bidding process.
On Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the US National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) are expected to hold the first of many public meetings over how to disperse the money.
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US residents endure some of the slowest broadband speeds
|
The lions share, $4.7bn (£3.3bn), will go to the NTIA with the remainder of $2.5bn (£1.7bn) going to the RUS, an agency within the Department of Agriculture.
The agencies will concentrate on "unserved" and "underserved" parts of the country like small towns and rural areas.
The money will also be aimed at paying for "broadband education, awareness, training, access, equipment and support" in an effort to create jobs.
"It's very important that they (the grants) go to economically viable commercial entities that are sustainable over the long term," said former Representative Charles "Chip" Pickering, who represented a rural district in Mississippi and was an active member on the House Telecommunications Subcommittee
He championed public-private partnerships that "maximise the leverage" of stimulus funding.
"When we have competition we have much greater innovation and investment," he said.
"Where we have a duopoly, we have seen reduced economic activity, reduced investment and reduced innovation."
Both agencies are required by law to commit all the funding by the end of 2010.
"The question of how fast we should move has been taken out of our hands by Congress," said Markham Erikson of the Open Internet Coalition, an advocacy group representing tech companies like Google, Amazon and eBay.
"NTIA has to move by Washington standards in lighting-fast time," he told the BBC in a conference call.
The coalition has sent a letter to the NTIA to urge it to
"adhere to common-sense openness principles" which Mr Erickson said
"has fed the engine of economic and job growth in the information,
communications and technology sector for over a decade." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7933895.stm>
'More bad news' on climate change
|
Matt McGrath
BBC environment reporter |
|
Scientists will present the most recent data on sea level rise
|
More bad news on climate change is expected as more than 2,000 climate scientists gather in Copenhagen.
They will be trying to pull together the latest research on global warming ahead of political negotiations later in the year.
The scientists are concerned that the 2007 reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are already out of date.
Their data suggests greater rises in sea levels this century.
For the scientists gathering in the Danish capital, this meeting is about removing as much wriggle room as possible from the political negotiations on a new global climate treaty taking place in December.
While the IPCC reports of 2007 were praised for their recognition of the causes of global warming, the slow, consensus-based nature of the process, meant more recent data was not included.
Greater clarity
But with this meeting taking place outside the IPCC, it means it will have the very latest estimates, and the scientists will have no need to agree every word with the political masters.
This unfettered atmosphere is likely to produce greater clarity about the scale of some very worrying trends, especially sea level rise.
The IPCC was widely criticised for stating that sea level rise this century would only amount to 59cm (23in).
The most recent data, to be presented here, will suggest a far higher figure with dramatic implications for many island nations and coastal regions.
The meeting is being organised by the University of Copenhagen. Its prorector Lykke Friis said the scientists would be presenting the latest and the clearest information, meaning political leaders would not have the excuse that they needed more research before agreeing on a deal.
As well as hearing from scientists, the meeting will also look
at the social and economic impacts of the global rise in temperatures. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7934046.stm>
Federalization in N Marianas shatters Filipino families' dreams
Their mother’s immigration status is that of an immediate relative (IR) of a US citizen under CNMI law.
But because US immigration laws do not recognize the CNMI’s IR status, thousands of these individuals will lose their immigration status by June 1 and may be forced to depart the CNMI unless the US government grants them a status that will allow them to continue to work and live in the CNMI.
Their mother, who worked at a hotel for some seven years until she was laid off due to economic hardships, is married to a US citizen. The couple’s children are US citizens for being born in the CNMI, a US territory whose capital Saipan is only about three hours away from Manila on a direct flight.
Jenica and Beda’s mother could apply for a green card or permanent residency, but the fees rack up to thousands of dollars, which the family cannot afford at this time.
"Fees for applying for green card are unaffordable. We strongly favor an enhanced status for aliens living here and have US-born children. Let this concern of ours be heard," Janice and Beda said in a statement.
Janice and Beda are just two of the over 1,500 children and adults who turned in personal letters, asking for an improved immigration status for themselves or their families by June 1, to three foreign workers' groups that will deliver these to the US Congress, the US Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies.
On Sunday, the United Workers Movement NMI, the Coalition of United Workers NMI, and the Human Dignity Movement held a letter-writing event to assist in writing, translating, collecting and scanning personal letters from those who will be affected by federalization.
The letters are being forwarded to Florida-based human rights activist Wendy Doromal, who will hand deliver the letters to the US Congress and other federal agencies drafting the regulations that will implement federal immigration in the CNMI.
Doromal said the letter writing campaign gives a “human face" to those who will be affected by federalization.
These people, according to Doromal, are guest workers, US citizen children of Filipinos and other foreign contract workers, spouses and children of citizens from FAS, alien spouses and children of U.S. citizens, CNMI permanent residents, widows and widowers of U.S. citizen spouses, and alien spouses divorced from their U.S. citizen spouses.
"The officials drafting regulations are thousands of miles from the CNMI and have not met with these people directly. The letters will give them a chance to get a clearer picture of who the people affected by Public Law 110-229 are, the contributions that they make to the community, and why they call the Commonwealth home," said Doromal in a statement. <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/152044/Federalization-in-N-Marianas-shatters-Filipino-families-dreams>
US extends stay of foreign athletes
The change came in a new policy memo issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, following months of lobbying by sports leagues and lawyers for foreign athletes. The memo, obtained Monday by The Associated Press, also came after the AP made inquiries to the agency about the limit.
The leagues and lawyers had complained that the agency recently began enforcing a 10-year limit, endangering the U.S. careers of foreign athletes. Agency officials countered that they've enforced the limit for years, which is based on a 1990 immigration law.
Foreign athletes participate in pro sports such as baseball, basketball, hockey and golf. They can come to the U.S. and play under what's known as a P-1 visa, which is for internationally recognized athletes or members of internationally recognized entertainment groups.
Under the old regulations, recipients could get five years on the visa and extend it once for another five years, not to exceed a total of 10 years.
The new policy will require foreign athletes, at the end of 10 years, to leave the country before applying for a new visa. That's not expected to be much of a burden for the athletes, many of whom return to their home country in the offseason. <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/152046/US-extends-stay-of-foreign-athletes>
Lord Carter enters YouTube row
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By Jane Wakefield
Technology reporter, BBC News website |
|
Lord Carter discussed a range of issues with MPs
|
Lord Carter has stepped into the row between YouTube and the Performing Rights Society as he answered questions put by MPs.
Facing the Business Committee about his Digital Britain report, Lord Carter said new models of paying for content were inevitable in the digital world.
He also reassured MPs that universal broadband would be a reality in the UK by 2012 - albeit using public money.
He hinted that the BBC may be asked to contribute to next generation access.
Order of change
Lord Carter said the row between YouTube - which has removed all UK-viewed music videos while it agrees new terms with the Performing Rights Society - was indicative of one of the main difficulties facing industry and government in the digital arena.
"Mass access to multiple forms of content demands that it is priced differently. We are talking about an order of change that we have never seen before," he told the Business and Enterprise Committee, a group of MPs set up to examine the work of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.
It was affecting all industries, including newspapers and TV, he said.
"Advertisers are simply not willing to pay as much money to put ads on TV as fewer people are watching it," said Lord Carter.
It is estimated that around 20% of media consumption is now done via the web, he said.
As the traditional method of funding content via advertising fizzles out, there was a role for government to play, he said.
"We can look at existing regulation, at competition rules and at mechanisms for raising additional funding,"
"These new technologies are inescapable and a reality for traditional ad-funded newspapers and TV but I'm not sure it is government's role to ensure they survive," he told MPs.
He said that regulator Ofcom and the Office of Fair Trading
were currently looking at existing competition rules to see if it was
possible to remove obstacles to allow for more consolidation in the
industry. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7934990.stm>
Malaysia acts to bolster economy
Malaysia is trying to stop the country entering a deep recession
Malaysia's government has unveiled a 60bn ringgit ($16.27bn; £11.7bn) economic stimulus plan as it seeks to stave off a deep recession.
The plan is equivalent to 9% of the country's economic output.
Malaysia's economy, which is heavily dependent on manufacturing, has been hit hard by the global downturn.
The package involves 700m ringgit to create 163,000 new jobs, 3bn ringgit in tax incentives and 25bn ringgit to help companies access funds.
"Without these efforts, the economy faces the prospect of a deep recession," said Finance Minister Najib Razak.
"We cannot depend on orthodox economy recovery policies."
The country had earlier announced plans to spend 17bn ringgit.
The package also detailed investment in infrastructure projects, including a budget airline terminal, expansion of Penang airport, a high speed broadband network and a covered walkway in the Golden Triangle shopping district in Kuala Lumpur.
The government also cut its economic growth forecast from 3.5%. It now reckons that the economy will at best grow 1% in 2009 and, at worst, shrink by 1%.
Malaysia's economy grew by 0.1% in the last three months of 2008. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7934900.stm>
Sea rise 'to exceed projections'
|
By David Shukman
Environment correspondent, BBC News, Copenhagen |
Scientists at a climate change summit in Copenhagen said earlier UN estimates were too low and that sea levels could rise by a metre or more by 2100.
The projections did not include the potential impact of polar melting and ice breaking off, they added.
The implications for millions of people would be "severe", they warned.
Last.FM joins Google's rights row
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By Jane Wakefield
Technology reporter, BBC News website |
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Premium music videos will not be accessible to UK YouTube users
|
Online music service Last.fm has waded into the row between YouTube and the Performing Right Society.
Founder Martin Stiksel said he hoped a resolution could be found to avoid illegal services from taking over.
He urged both parties to find a "workable solution, which he hoped would include cheaper and "less complicated" licenses.
YouTube is removing all premium music videos to UK users after failing to reach agreement with the PRS.
Thousands of videos were made unavailable to YouTube users from late on 9 March.
Mr Stiksel told the BBC: "It has been a bold decision for Google but we are all working in a very competitive environment and the fees need to reflect that," he said.
|
This action has been taken without any consultation with PRS for Music and in the middle of negotiations between the two parties
PRS statement
|
"It is a fundamental problem that we have been facing in that online music licensing is getting more complicated and more expensive," he said.
He wants to see online payment for music rights reflecting the model used by terrestial radio.
"We pay each time one users listens to a song or watches a clip and, while that is more accurate because it makes sure the more popular songs get paid more, it is also very expensive," he said.
"Terrestial radio pays a fixed minimum and that works out a lot cheaper," he added.
"We have to find commercially workable rates otherwise illegal services will win and take over," he said. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7935833.stm>
Indian meal starter lasts 50 years
|
By Zubair Ahmed
BBC News, Mumbai |
Eighty-year-old Jaswantiben Jamnadas Popat defies her age.
She seems more agile and active than her grandchildren.
"I don't want to stop working," she says with youthful determination.
Mrs Popat is the only survivor of a group of semi-literate Gujarati housewives who founded Lijjat Papad 50 years ago.
She will be celebrating the Lijjat golden jubilee on 15 March with 45,000 other women who are part of the women-only co-operative.
Mrs Popat cannot believe that what started as a desperate move to "supplement the family income" 50 years ago has come so far.
She says after taking a deep breadth: "I feel I am living in a dream world. When we started our business it was not meant to become so big."
'Seven sisters'
It is indeed a big business today, with an annual turnover of nearly $100m and a flourishing exports account to boot.
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'I feel I am living in a dream world,' says Mrs Popat
|
The Lijjat trade began when seven Gujarati housewives decided to exploit the only skill they knew - cooking.
Mrs Popat says: "We were semi-literate which restricted our chances to get jobs. But we realised our papad-making expertise could be used to earn small amounts of money to help our husbands reduce their financial responsibility."
On 15 March 1959, they gathered on the terrace of an old building in a crowded South Mumbai locality and rolled out four packets of papads to sell.
The "seven sisters", as they are fondly remembered, started production with the princely sum of 80 rupees (now $1.50), borrowed from a good Samaritan, Chaganlal Karamsi Parekh, a social worker with entrepreneurial brains.
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The business has expanded from poverty-stricken shanty towns
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"He advised us that if we wanted to experience success, never accept donations. We have never ignored his advice."
Soon the entrepreneurship expanded in Mumbai's overcrowded and poverty-stricken shanty towns.
Three months later the business had 25 women. Word quickly spread about the quality and taste of the poppadoms.
The trade began to expand as a co-operative. In a few years they had branches all over Mumbai and in subsequent years all across India.
Foreign dignitaries visited their factories. The women received
one award after another. Exports flourished. They were on a roll - from
poppadoms they branched out into soaps, savouries, chutneys and
pickles. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7932979.stm>
Google serves up behavioural ads
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If users like holidays they will get ads about holidays
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It has launched a system that will serve up ads to web users based on their previous online activities.
The search giant is offering users the chance to see and edit their profiles and it will also offer them the choice to opt out of the service.
But privacy campaigners are outraged by the move, with Privacy International calling for a parliamentary enquiry. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7937201.stm>
US and China 'vow to avoid rows'
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, right, meets Chinese Foreign
Minister Yang Jiechi at the state department on Washington on Wednesday
The gestures were warm, but tensions over the naval incident remain
The US and China will work together to avoid more confrontations in the
future, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has told reporters.
She was speaking after meeting China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi -
but the dispute over a weekend confrontation in the South China Sea is
rumbling on.
Meanwhile, Mrs Clinton warned North Korea could face "a range of options" if it goes ahead with a missile test.
Mr Yang is in Washington, and will meet US President Barack Obama on Thursday.
"We have each stated our positions, but the important point of
agreement coming out of my discussions with Minister Yang is that we
must work hard in the future to avoid such incidents and to avoid this
particular incident having consequences that are unforeseen," Mrs
Clinton told reporters after her meeting with Mr Yang.
See map showing rival claims in the South China Sea
She said his visit was a "very positive" development and that she
looked forward to building a "positive, co-operative and comprehensive
relationship".
- Two Chinese trawlers stop directly in front of the USNS Impeccable on 8 March 2009 (image: US Navy)
- Territorial claims from China, the Philippines, Taiwan, Brunei, Vietnam and Malaysia overlap in resource-rich sea
- Hosts some of the world's busiest shipping lanes
- China says the US was in its Exclusive Economic Zone - but the two sides disagree on what activities are allowed in an EEZ
Earlier, Mr Yang said he was in Washington "to get prepared for our two
heads of state's meeting in London [for a G20 summit in April] and to
work together to push our relations forward", according to China's
official news agency Xinhua - but he made no reported mention of the
maritime dispute.
Despite the warm words, the dispute over the incident remains unresolved.
The Pentagon says five Chinese ships harassed an unarmed US navy
surveillance vessel in a dangerous manner while it was on routine
operations in international waters 75 miles (120km) south of Hainan
island.
But China called the US complaint "totally inaccurate" and accused it
of breaking international law by operating in its Exclusive Economic
Zone (EEZ).
The US ship had behaved "like a spy" and China's action was "totally
within our rights", state media quoted senior naval officials as saying.
The boundaries of China's EEZ remain disputed, while Beijing and
Washington differ on which activities are permitted by law within a
nation's EEZ. China has a key submarine base on Hainan island.<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7936468.stm>
New US law eases Cuba sanctions
He said the bill was imperfect because Congressmen had added pet
projects to the $410bn package that will fund government spending until
September.
Cuban-Americans will be allowed to travel to the island once a year and send more money to relatives there.
Curbs on sending medicines and food have also been eased.
The legislation was earlier approved by the Senate after clearing the House of Representatives last month.
The legislation overturns rules imposed by the Bush administration
which limited travel to just two weeks every three years, and confined
visits to immediate family members.
President Obama has indicated he would be open to dialogue with Cuba's leaders.
But he has said that, like previous American presidents, he will only
consider a full lifting of the embargo once Cuba's communist government
makes significant moves such as the holding of democratic elections.
Cuba's President Raul Castro has said he is prepared to negotiate with
the new US administration, providing there are no preconditions.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7938737.stm>
Obama calls for G20 joint action
President Obama was speaking ahead of this weekend's meeting of G20 finance ministers near Horsham, in West Sussex.
He said the US had two goals at the G20 - to ensure joint action to
jump-start economies and to move forward on a regulatory reform agenda.
He added that he was optimistic about the meeting's prospects. "We are in this together," he said.
It's very important to make sure that other countries are moving in the
same direction, because the global economy is all tied together
US President Barack Obama
Darling urges global co-operation
In-depth guide to G20 Summit
President Obama's comments came amid reports of a growing rift between the US and Europe over the G20 in recent weeks.
Washington has been calling for more spending plans, while most
European leaders have been pressing for increased global regulation of
the financial system.
US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said the Obama administration
believes it is essential for other major countries to commit to
substantial and sustained efforts to bolster their economies.
Earlier, UK Chancellor Alistair Darling had also called for co-ordinated global action.
"We must work together not as a small group of advanced economies but
globally, including the emerging and developing economies," he told
reporters in London. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7938086.stm>
Asia markets stall amid resurgent economic fears
Most markets edged into the red, led by shares in automakers and financial firms, in lackluster trade that defied a modest rise on Wall Street overnight.
Stocks worldwide rallied on Wednesday as indications struggling US bank Citigroup may be turning a profit lifted optimism about the hard-hit financial system, whose recovery is seen as essential to ending the global slump.
But there was little to entice investors Thursday after figures this week showed a continued sharp drop-off in Chinese exports and Japanese industrial spending — the latest evidence that Asia's economies were getting clobbered by an economic crisis that has leveled overseas consumer demand for exports.
On Thursday, revised figures showed that Japan's economy, the world's second largest, suffered its biggest contraction in 35 years in the fourth quarter. The gloom extended to corporations, with Toyota saying it was worried its suppliers may face a cash crunch.
"The markets are still lacking momentum, we had a one day spike in volumes and its back to quiet markets today. There's still a lot of indecision and skepticism ," said John Mar, co-head of sales trading, Daiwa Securities SMBC Co.
"There was a slew of economic data that point to a slowdown in China. Two large US banks talked up profits, but nothing has changed fundamentally and there's little to get you pumped back into the markets."
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 stock average fell 117.66 points, 1.6 percent, to 7,258.46, and South Korea's Kospi was off 16.13, or 1.4 percent, at 1,111.07.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng was down 41.81 points, or 0.4 percent, at 11,888.61 in choppy trade.
Markets in Australia and Singapore also traded lower; Taiwan's market gained.
Overnight in New York, Wall Street managed to eke out a second day of gains after a huge rally the day before.
The Dow rose 3.91, or 0.1 percent, to 6,930.40. The rise gives the blue chips their third advance in four sessions.The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 1.76, or 0.2 percent, to 721.36.
US futures pointed to a modestly lower open on Wall Street Thursday.
Oil prices recovered somewhat from a steep fall overnight, with benchmark crude for April delivery up 52 cents at $42.85 a barrel in Asian trade. On Wednesday, the contract tumbled $3.38, or more than 7 percent, to settle at $42.33.
In currencies, the dollar swooned to 96.29 yen from 97.31 yen. The euro traded higher at $1.2831. - AP <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/152412/Asia-markets-stall-amid-resurgent-economic-fears>
EU needs 'brutal' science advice
|
By Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent, BBC News |
|
John Beddington: leading a wake-up call for European Science Advice
|
European commissioners and MEPs need better, more "brutal" scientific advice, the UK government's chief scientist has said.
Professor John Beddington said that Europe should follow the US president's lead and step up its scientific agenda.
"Compared with the new Washington line-up, European science advice looks very deficient," he said.
Professor Beddington is leading efforts to update Europe's system and is calling for more independent advisers.
US President Barack Obama has appointed a "dream team" of scientists to senior positions in his administration to advise him on policy.
John Holdren, an expert on climate change, will be his personal science adviser. Working with him will be a plethora of world-renowned scientists, including two Nobel Prize winners.
"This should serve as a wake-up call to the European Union," says Professor Beddington.
|
We need scientists to come in and challenge policy at lots of levels
Professor John Beddington
|
Their job is to be an independent - and sometimes irritating voice - for ministers, scrutinising policy and, if they feel it is unworkable, saying so.
In Europe, the body that provides scientific support to the commission is the Joint Research Centre, which Professor Beddington describes as "excellent".
But it was unable to provide the proactive and sometimes
"brutal" scientific advice that policy makers might not want to hear,
he told BBC News. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7935663.stm>
Chavez food reforms spark bitter row
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By Will Grant
BBC News, Caracas |
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Arepa restaurants say fixed prices could drive them out of business
|
There is probably nothing more Venezuelan than an arepa. A flat-bread made from maize flour, it is the cornerstone of Venezuelan cuisine.
The arepas are stuffed with meat or cheese and Venezuelans have eaten them morning, noon and night for generations.
But this simple dish has been at the centre of a dispute between restaurant owners and the government - a dispute that reveals deeper problems in the production of food in Venezuela.
Last week the commerce minister, Eduardo Saman, baulked at the price of an arepa, which are sold with a meat filling for between 15 and 20 bolivares (around $7-$10 or £5-£7) in most arepa restaurants.
An arepa with pork, he said, should cost no more than 1.5 bolivars (around $0.70).
There was an immediate outcry.
Concerned restaurant owners accused the government of having no understanding of the costs involved in making arepas and said that such a price would ruin their businesses within months.
Customers were quoted too, defending the prices at their local arepa outlets, or areperas. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7939542.stm>
Social networks 'are new e-mail'
|
By Darren Waters
Technology editor, BBC News website, Texas |
|
Facebook is the dominant platform for status updates
|
"We are all in the process of creating e-mail 2.0," David Sacks, founder of business social network Yammer said.
Tens of millions of people are using social networks to stay in touch.
The growth in such services is being heralded as the start of the real-time, pervasive web.
'New communication'
Mr Sacks said: "What people want to do on social network these days is post status updates. We think it's all people want to do."
Yammer is an enterprise social network, designed to facilitate communication within companies and organisations.
It is one of a growing number of services that lets users share micro-updates. Other services have a richer mix of content, including sharing photos and video, and allowing comments from people within your social network, building a so-called activity stream.
"I think it's a new form of communication; not quite e-mail, more lightweight and more real time, often with little bit of a publishing flavour to it," said Paul Buchheit, founder of FriendFeed, and the creator and lead developer of GMail, while at Google.
FriendFeed lets users share content from other services, such as Twitter and Flickr, and comment directly on the postings in real-time.
Simplicity and ubiquity
With more than 175 million users Facebook is the dominant platform for status updates.
Ari Steinberg, an engineering manager at the firm, told BBC News: "It's been interesting to see the way people change the way they communicate.
"You used to e-mail content to people and you had to choose who you wanted to e-mail it to and you didn't know if your friends even wanted to see it.
"Now you can passively put something out there and let people engage with it."
The simplicity and ubiquity of some of these services is beginning to see activity feeds and status updates replace many of the uses to which e-mail was once put.
Mr Sacks said: "It's no coincidence that these products are all looking like e-mail.
"These products are all standardising around a message form at
the top, and the inbox which is a feed then folders around the side." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7942304.stm>
Fina cracks down on hi-tech suits
|
Rebecca Adlington claimed two golds and a world record in a LZR suit
|
Last year saw an astonishing 108 world records broken, 79 of them by swimmers wearing one suit, the Speedo LZR Racer.
But following a three-day meeting in Dubai, Fina has stipulated swimsuits should not cover the neck and must not extend past the shoulders and ankles.
The changes, which will be in place for July's world championships, also limit the suits' thickness and buoyancy.
"Fina wishes to recall the main and core principle
is that swimming is a sport essentially based on the physical
performance of the athlete," said a statement from swimming's world
governing body.
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606: DEBATE
|
The first swimsuit to combine stitch-free, ultrasonically welded seams, water-resistant fabric and strategically-placed polyurethane panels (designed by Nasa), the LZR took the swimming world by storm last year.
At the Olympics in Beijing, LZR swimmers, most notably Michael Phelps, won 94% of the golds on offer and broke 23 of the 25 records set in the Cube.
But opponents of the hi-tech suits argue the buoyancy they create amounts to "technological doping".
And matters came to a head in December when 17 world records tumbled at the European Short-Course Championships with the sight of swimmers squeezing into more than one suit in an attempt to compress their bodies and trap air for buoyancy dismaying many observers.
Report - Hi-tech swimsuits polarise opinion
Fina also intends to limit the use of non-permeable materials in the suits and only recognize world records if approved has been used.
Suits to be used from 1 January 2010 will have to be put in for approval by 1 November.
And future submissions will have to be made 12 months in advance
of a world championship or an Olympic Games, with the approved models
to be available at least six months prior to the events. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympic_games/7944084.stm>
Riding the recession the HP way
|
By Maggie Shiels
Technology reporter, BBC News, Silicon Valley |
|
HP has labs in 7 countries and employs more than 500 researchers
|
The world's largest technology company says a major reorganisation of research efforts last year will help it survive the downturn and secure its future.
In 2008 HP announced a "groundbreaking" move to align the work done in its labs more closely with business goals.
"Our approach has positioned us well to innovate in today's economy," said HP Labs director Prith Banerjee.
"R&D is the pipeline for future growth of the company," he said, ahead of the first annual report on the move.
One of the major shifts in how the labs now operate is to include the company's business unit in helping decide which research projects should be funded and which should not.
"This approach which we took before the recession hit has positioned us well to innovate in today's economy," said Mr Banerjee.
He admitted that had they not "sharpened their focus", business managers today would be asking: "In this economy why are you doing this?"
In fact when it comes to the economic downturn, Mr Banerjee said it is not a major focus of concern.
"We are not looking at the recession," he told the BBC. "We are looking at investment in technology for the long term so that HP is fully prepared to provide its customers with a variety of choices when we get out of the recession.
"Innovation is not for the next quarter, it is for the next two years, five years from now. The key is to invest in innovation that truly matters."
"Moved the needle"
HP Labs was formed more than 40 years ago by company founders Bill Hewlett and David Packard to focus on the future and not be hidebound by day-to-day business concerns.
While it is a company primarily known for making printers and photocopiers, the work done in the seven labs dotted around the world has been varied.
Over the years, HP has been responsible for giving us the atomic clock, light-emitting diodes or LED's, DNA analysis and computational fluid dynamics.
|
"Innovation is the key towards growth," said HP's Prith Banerjee
|
Mr Banerjee also told a breakfast meeting of reporters that HP's scientists helped make the movies Shrek 2 and Madagascar for the film studio DreamWorks.
Today, the number of projects being funded has been scaled back and the focus has been clearly defined into eight main themes covering things like analytics, the cloud, information management and sustainability.
In the last year, 22 lab projects have produced new technologies or techniques that were said to have "moved the needle" towards improving HP's bottom line.
These included enhancements to HP's high-end video conferencing equipment, a high-speed wireless memory chip and a cloud-based publishing service.
"HP is a technology company and innovation is the key towards growth for any technology company in a downturn," said Mr Banerjee. "The man at the top [CEO Mark Hurd] recognises this and is very supportive because what Labs does is innovate on things beyond the roadmap."
He said HP's commitment to the future is evident in the $3.5bn budget it has allocated this year for R&D with $150m of that going into pure research.
Projects in the works at the moment range from voice and facial recognition to enhancing customer-relations with big stores, and from using lasers to transmit data between computers to researching ways to reduce energy consumption.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7943300.stm>
A step closer to reading the mind
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Activity in the hippocampus was monitored
|
The hippocampus is widely known to be integral to memory, but researchers say they now see just how images are stored and recalled in this part of the brain.
Wellcome Trust scientists trained four participants to recognise several virtual reality environments.
Discernible patterns in brain activity then signalled where they were, they wrote in the journal Current Biology.
|
It would be very easy not to co-operate, and then it wouldn't work
Demis Hassabis
Researcher |
The team, based at University College London, then used specialised scanning equipment which measures changes in blood flow in the brain.
This allowed them to examine the activity of these cells as the participants - all young men with experience of playing videogames - moved around the virtual reality environment. The data was then passed through a computer.
"We asked whether we could see any interesting patterns in the neural activity that could tell us what the participants were thinking, or in this case where they were," said Professor Eleanor Maguire.
Are you lying?
"Surprisingly, just by looking at the brain data we could predict exactly where they were in the virtual reality environment. In other words we could 'read' their spatial memories."
"By looking at activity over tens of thousands of neurons, we can see that there must be a functional structure - a pattern - to how these memories are encoded."
But they stressed that the prospect of genuinely reading someone's most intimate thoughts - or working out if they were lying - was still a long way off.
Their participants were all willing subjects who allowed their brains to be trained and monitoring to take place.
"It would be very easy not to co-operate, and then it wouldn't work," said Demis Hassabis, who developed the computer programme to read the data. "These kind of scenarios would require a great technological leap."
|
Participants were asked to navigate between virtual reality rooms
|
It is brain diseases such as Alzheimer's which could stand to benefit from such research.
"Understanding how we learn and store memories could aid our understanding of conditions in which memory is compromised and potentially help patients in the rehabilitation process," said Professor Maguire.
Professor Clive Ballard, director of research at the Alzheimer's Society, said: "This exciting development will boost our understanding of the hippocampus, a key area affected in Alzheimer's disease and the most important part of the brain for memory.
"Learning more about how the brain works could help us work out which types of nerve cells are lost in Alzheimer's."
Rebecca Wood, of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, said the research was "fascinating".
She said: "Understanding how memories are formed may help
researchers discover how this process goes wrong in diseases like
Alzheimer's." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7937926.stm>
G20 summit 'critical for economy'
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The main G20 summit will be held in April
|
Cabinet minister Douglas Alexander said the summit in London of the G20 group of rich and emerging nations next month "was an important moment".
G20 finance ministers pledged to make a sustained effort to beat the recession after they met on Saturday.
But the talks took place amid differences on the best way forward.
The finance ministers also promised to continue with economic stimulus packages and low interest rates, and to increase IMF funding.
|
We do have a heavy responsibility to stop protectionism taking hold
Douglas Alexander
|
Mr Alexander played down suggestion of rifts between the EU and the US and the UK on how to tackle the financial crisis.
While the US and UK finance ministers have led the call for further public spending on stimulus packages to help lift economies, some of their European counterparts have urged caution.
"We had an agreement from everybody around the table to do all that that is necessary for as long as is necessary and that sends an important signal to markets," he told the BBC.
"There was a recognition with 20 countries around the room that the fiscal response is going to vary from country to country."
The outline agreements will provide the basis for more concrete pledges at next month's meeting of G20 leaders in London.
Heavy responsibility
Mr Douglas said that a failure at that summit would be very risky for the world economy.
"A meeting in London 1931, the world came together and failed to reach agreement on the way to deal with the recession at that time and we all know the consequences," he said.
"We do have a heavy responsibility to stop protectionism taking hold," he added.
President Barack Obama also denied suggestions of division between the US and some European countries.
He said he was fully committed to pursuing regulation of the global financial system.
"I don't know where this notion has emerged that somehow there are sides developing with respect to the G20," he said. "There are no sides." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7944625.stm>
Second generation Surface coming
|
By Darren Waters
Technology editor, BBC News website, Texas |
Microsoft Surface is helping re-think how we interact with computers
Developer Joe Olsen, whose company Phenomblue writes applications for the Surface, said he had been told the device was still in the development stage.
"They haven't even got to point where they are going to commercialise," he said.
Chris Bernard, user experience evangelist for Microsoft, said he could not confirm a release date.
Surface is a multi-touch computer in the shape of a table, with a flat screen that can "read" multi-touch gestures, as well as content from printed material placed onto the device, thanks to five cameras inside the machine.
It is being developed with enterprise, tourism and public-facing solutions in mind and launches in the UK next week.
Dubbed Second Light, the Surface 2 will build on the original model and have a second projector inside the table computer that can project images onto a layer above the surface of the screen.
In effect, the device will be able to overlay secondary images above those on the screen - such as satellite imagery over a street map, or more detailed contextual data on top of images.
Shift in interaction
|
Devices like the Surface are changing how we interact with computers
|
Mr Olsen said Microsoft staff at Redmond had told him that the device was still in being worked on within Research and Development.
Erik Klimczak, creative director of Clarity Consulting, which also produces applications for the Surface, said he expected the next generation to have high-definition cameras.
"Right now they are limited to how much detail they can pick up," he said.
Devices like the Surface, as well as Apple's iPhone, are at the vanguard of a shift in how we interact with computers.
"Everything is moving to touch and multi-touch so you had better
jump on that bandwagon," Mr Klimczak told the conference of web
developers. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7945154.stm>
Coke's China juice move collapses
|
Huiyuan is seen as one of China's most successful homegrown brands
|
China has rejected a $2.4bn (£1.7bn) bid by Coca-Cola for the country's biggest maker of fruit juice, the government has said.
The sale of Huiyuan Juice Group would have been the largest takeover of a Chinese firm by a foreign rival.
But rival juice makers had said the deal would give Coca-Cola too much dominance in China's beverage market.
And nationalists had called on Beijing to ban foreigners from buying one of China's most successful brands.
Key test
Last year the Chinese government introduced tough anti-monopoly laws.
Investors had been waiting for the Ministry of Commerce's decision on whether the Huiyuan deal could go ahead as a test of China's attitudes towards overseas investment in the wake of the new legislation.
A report in the Financial Times said that Coca-Cola had been considering abandoning the deal because regulators would insist that the Huiyuan name, a well-known brand throughout China, was given up.
"If Coke can't own the Huiyuan brand it is difficult to be optimistic about a successful completion of this deal," the FT quoted an unnamed person "close to the deal".
Huiyuan has about a 40% share of the Chinese juice market. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7949903.stm>
Europe and NZ poles apart on sex trade
Some European governments, by contrast, have chosen to restrict the trade. Sex workers are calling for New Zealand-style liberalisation, but as Henri Astier reports in the second of two articles, they stand little chance of being heard.
|
Even the liberal Dutch want to clamp down on the sex industry
|
When Norway criminalised the purchase of sex services in January, it took its cue from next-door Sweden, which pioneered the policy in 1999, rather than far-off New Zealand.
Wholesale decriminalisation may work in a South Pacific island nation, but the suggestion that it could work on a continent where ruthless gangs move all too freely strikes many as fanciful.
"New Zealand might be different because it is so isolated," says Anna Narit of the Nadheim Women's Centre, a church-run shelter in Oslo that looks after prostitutes rescued from traffickers and criminals.
"We have a lot of migration in Europe, and the borders are open," she says, defending Norway's new law under which those caught paying for prostitutes can face a heavy fine or six months in prison.
The idea behind the approach is not to target prostitutes, who are regarded as victims, but to empower them.
Clamping down on demand for their services is expected to weaken the hold of those preying on them. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7933973.stm>
North Korea refuses US food aid
|
Children and mothers are vulnerable to malnutrition in North Korea
|
Five aid groups have been told to leave the North by the end of March, the State Department and aid groups said.
The UN World Food Programme estimates that almost nine million people - more than a third of the North Korean population - are in need of food aid.
The aid block comes as the North is planning to launch a satellite, which some fear is a cover for testing long-range missile technology.
To add the tension, North Korea recently closed its border with the South, leaving 400 South Korean workers in the shared Kaesong industrial zone stranded. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7949785.stm>
US poised to join Mexico drug war
|
The general praised Mexican efforts, but said the US needed to do more
|
Gen Gene Renuart, head of the US Northern Command, told a Senate hearing that troops or anti-narcotics agents would be sent to the Mexican border.
The plan could be finalised as early as this week, he added.
Correspondents say Mexico's mounting drug violence has emerged as a real national security threat to the US.
"Certainly, there may be a need for additional manpower," said Gen Renuart, who oversees US military interests in the border region.
"Whether that is best suited or best provided by National Guard
or additional law enforcement agencies, I think, this planning team
will really lead us to," he told the Senate Armed Services Committee. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7949665.stm>
Will euro save Eastern Europe?
|
By Konstantin Rozhnov
Business reporter, BBC News |
|
The single currency was launched in 1998
|
Of the 10 countries which joined the European Union in 2004, only four have already entered the eurozone - Malta, Cyprus, Slovakia and Slovenia.
"Slovakia and Slovenia are still being affected by the crisis - the world being affected by the crisis," says Susan Schadler, an independent consultant and former deputy director of the European department at the International Monetary Fund.
"But this region is worse affected, and I would say Slovakia and Slovenia are in a better position than their neighbours."
Many argue, though, that the other new EU countries are not strong and flexible enough to join the eurozone.
The global downturn has strengthened this argument as foreign
investors have pulled their money out of Eastern European and other
emerging markets, hitting their economies hard and sending their
currencies into a destabilising tail-spin. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7932770.stm>
The grim mood behind France's banners
|
By Hugh Schofield
BBC News, Paris |
France certainly knows how to give a good demo and today's parades provided a vivid focus for growing public anger over the economy.
|
In La Reunion strikers blocked a supermarket with trolleys
|
To the music of whistles and fire-crackers, hundreds of thousands marched through the streets of Paris and other cities, shouting down the government and demanding more state protection to see them through the crisis.
Schools and public offices were shut, transport disrupted, radio stations off air - in all, the classic repertoire of the French journee d'action, or "day of action".
Why is it only in France that such demonstrations are taking place?
After all, it is people the world over who are bearing the brunt of the recession. But they are not on the street.
The answer is simple. France is France. It has its own political and social codes, forged in the Revolution and over the course of two turbulent centuries.
Tradition
Here more than elsewhere, public protest is the legitimate expression of political difference - it is how they get governments to listen.
|
I do feel that this strike is necessary - people on low income can hardly afford to pay the rent
Coralie Diatkine, musician, Paris
|
Today's protesters want many things from the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy. They want a rise in the minimum wage. They want an end to public sector job cuts.
They are demanding the removal of a 50% personal tax ceiling that benefits the rich. Some of them say companies that make profits should be banned from making people redundant.
But above all they want to express a gnawing sense of injustice.
As one protester put it, if it was the richest of the rich that
created the disaster, why do the poorest of the poor bear the burden? <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7953555.stm>
Land boost for Brazilian Indians
By 10 votes to one, judges ruled to maintain an Indian reservation in the northern border state of Roraima as a single, continuous territory.
It means that a small group of outside rice farmers with plantations in the area will now have to leave.
The head of the court also accused the government of failing the Indians.
This was the third occasion the court had met to reach a decision on the question, and the delays appeared to be just another indication of the sensitivity involved, the BBC's Gary Duffy reports from Brazil.
The Raposa Serra do Sol reservation, which stretches more than 1.7m hectares (4.2m acres) along the Venezuelan border, is home to up to 20,000 Amazonian Indians.
Indigenous leaders had feared a ruling against them would have
signalled to land-owners and loggers that it was acceptable to invade
their territory. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7954121.stm>
EU aims to double emergency cash
|
Mr Topolanek (right) said the EU was unanimous on the stimulus package
|
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said he was confident the deal would be reached on the final day of a two-day summit in Brussels.
Meanwhile, EU leaders resisted US calls for more government spending to stimulate their crisis-hit economies.
They said the focus should be on reforming the global financial system.
They are also planning to boost the resources of the International Monetary Fund to help countries in trouble.
The Brussels summit, which opened on Thursday, takes place as the world's biggest economies prepare for next month's G20 summit in London.
|
Trying to outdo one another with promises will certainly not bring any calm to the situation
Angela Merkel
German Chancellor |
Mr Barroso said doubling the emergency funding ceiling to 50bn euros would be "a good signal that the EU is ready to show solidarity and support... to the countries that may need it".
The emergency cash is only for member states outside the 16-nation eurozone.
Hungary and Latvia have already received about 10bn euros (£9bn) to deal with their balance of payments crises.
Romania is the next member seeking a bail-out, the BBC's Oana Lungescu in Brussels says. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7952557.stm>
Obituary: Jade Goody
|
Jade Goody had one of the most sustained reality careers
|
She careered onto the scene thanks to the third series of Big Brother in 2002, and it was a reality juggernaut which kept running.
Goody, who was raised in a run-down area of south-east London, found that fame was at times harsh, as well as making her a handsome living.
But it was a far cry from her tough background, with a mother maimed by a motorbike accident who relied on her care and a father who served time in prison.
During her first outing in Big Brother, she hit the headlines as a young woman with shockingly poor general knowledge, who was often the object of her fellow housemates' derision.
Pronouncements including: "Is East Angular abroad?" went down in folklore.
The press initially denounced Goody as an embarrassing joke, but by the time she made the final, the mood was softer, almost affectionate.
Disastrous
The interest in Goody after Big Brother did not falter as she built up her profile as a reality celebrity, and happily allowed coverage of her private life for lucrative returns.
|
Goody brushed off being called a 'pig' in Big Brother
|
Her two-year relationship with Jeff Brazier - a reality show presenter - was often stormy and made tabloid newsprint, but also gave Goody her two sons.
She went on to appear in a string of celebrity-titled television programmes and was the star of a string of reality shows that carried her name.
Her decision to return to Big Brother in 2007 marked a turning point in her career.
With boyfriend Jack Tweedy and formidable mother Jackiey Budden in tow, Goody's graduation to the show's celebrity spin-off was disastrous.
The racist row with Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty attracted 45,000 complaints, with both the press and public turning on Goody - who made a string of tearful apologies after the event.
Goody exits from India's Big Brother
Her stock plummeted and money-spinning products including perfume and an autobiography were removed from the shelves, leaving her TV career in tatters.
The star's earnings, estimated to have amounted to several million pounds at their height, were also put in jeopardy as the work dried up.
Goody's salvation was a public relations offensive centred on
India, and a third Big Brother stint on the Indian version of the show,
as her very public absolution continued. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7869431.stm>
Angry Europeans look for direction
|
French unions are demanding more money to protect workers
|
A man dressed as a bloated plutocrat complete with top hat and cigar bellowed his demands, the rig-out somehow uncomfortably recalling propaganda of the 1930s.
As he shouted, "Save the poor!" the camera panned down to reveal a placard proclaiming a fat cat's mantra: "Tax breaks, pensions, stock options - what's the problem?"
A little later, in Brussels, the most important politicians in Europe gathered to discuss the economic upheaval that provoked the street protests, the crisis they themselves have labelled "one of the most important challenges ever to face the European Union".
In the end they took a whole host of smallish, detailed
decisions but nothing big, nothing dramatic - nothing that you would
want to label "leadership". <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7955686.stm>
'Scareware' scams trick searchers
|
Peddlers of bogus anti-virus try to scare people into buying
|
Using popular and mis-spelled search terms, the criminals divert people to sites that are seeded with fake warnings about virus infections.
The pop-up warnings claim that a visitor's PC is riddled with malicious programmes and spyware.
Research suggests some criminals are making as much as $10,000 a day from fake security software. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7955358.stm>
Setback for climate technical fix
|
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website |
The idea is that putting iron filings in the ocean will stimulate growth of algae, which will absorb CO2 from air.
But scientists on the Lohafex project, which put six tonnes of iron into the Southern Ocean, said little extra carbon dioxide was taken up.
Germany's environment ministry had tried to stop the project, which green campaign groups said was "dangerous".
Leaders of the German-Indian expedition said they had gained valuable scientific information, but that their results suggested iron fertilisation could not have a major impact, at least in that region of the oceans.
"There's been hope that one could remove some of the excess carbon dioxide - put it back where it came from, in a sense, because the petroleum we're burning was originally made by the algae," said Victor Smetacek from the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven.
|
The Southern Ocean cannot sequester the amount of carbon dioxide that one had hoped
Victor Smetacek
|
"But our results show this is going to be a small amount, almost negligible."
Previous experiments, which have been going on for at least a decade, had indicated that iron particles could stimulate the growth of phytoplankton - algae - and that when the phytoplankton died, they fell to the sea floor, meaning that carbon taken from the air was effectively locked away on the bottom of the ocean.
Following fertilisation of a 300 sq km patch of ocean, Lohafex, too, saw a burst of algal growth.
But within two weeks, the algae were being eaten by tiny creatures called copepods, which were then in turn eaten by amphipods, a larger type of crustacean.
The net result was that far less carbon dioxide was absorbed and sent to the sea floor than scientists had anticipated.
"What it means is the Southern Ocean cannot sequester the amount
of carbon dioxide that one had hoped," concluded Professor Smetacek. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7959570.stm>
Lesson for G20 from 1933 London summit
|
By Steve Schifferes
Economics reporter, BBC News |
|
Delegates confer with Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald at the 1933 summit
|
As delegates gather for the G20 summit in London on 2 April, it is worth looking to the last time London hosted a world economic summit.
In June 1933, delegates from 66 countries gathered in London to try and agree plans to revive the world economy in the midst of the Great Depression.
The London Monetary and Economic Conference, organised by the League of Nations, aimed at reviving global trade, stabilising commodity prices, and restoring the gold standard.
Among those who gathered in London's Geological Museum, hosted by UK Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, were eight prime ministers, 20 foreign ministers, 80 finance ministers and central bankers, and two heads of state - King Faisal of Iraq and Swiss President Edmund Schulthess.
|
G20 LONDON SUMMIT
World leaders will meet next month in London to discuss measures to tackle the downturn. See our in-depth guide to the G20 summit.
The G20 countries are Argentina, Australia, Brazil,
Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico,
Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United
Kingdom, the US and the EU.
|
But within a month the conference had collapsed - torpedoed by the opposition of the new US President, Franklin D Roosevelt, to making any agreements that would restrict his freedom to act boldly to revive the US economy as part of the New Deal.
The bad faith engendered by that collapse had political as well as economic ramifications, with the French and British concluding that the US was an unreliable ally, while Germany's new Chancellor, Adolf Hitler, was emboldened to move towards autarchy and rearmament in Germany.
Meanwhile, trade barriers went up across the world, countries
engaged in competitive devaluations of their currencies, and rising
unemployment contributed to political instability across Europe. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7954532.stm>
G20 Summit
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/business/2009/g20/default.stm>
Sri Lanka plays hardball with IMF
|
President Mahinda Rajapaksa says Sri Lanka will not bow to IMF conditions
|
"We will not pawn or sell our motherland to obtain any monetary aid," said Mahinda Rajapaksa.
The Sri Lankan government is in talks with the IMF about a $1.9bn (£1.4bn) loan to help combat the economic downturn and pay for reconstruction.
The IMF usually insists on conditions for any emergency loans. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7947787.stm>
World's cheapest car is launched
Costing just 100,000 rupees ($1,979; £1,366), the Nano will now go on sale across India next month, with deliveries starting in July.
Tata hopes the 10-foot (3-metre) long, five-seater car will be cheap enough to encourage millions of Indians to trade up from their motorcycles.
Tata owner Ratan Tata has described the Nano as a "milestone". Analysts say it will not make a profit for six years.
|
We wanted a find a safe way to transport Indian families at an affordable price
Tata owner Ratan Tata
|
Tata's managing director Ravi Kant said that from the first orders, a ballot would then select the initial 100,000 people to get their Nano.
"I think we are at the gates of offering a new form of transport to the people of India and later, I hope, other markets elsewhere in the world," Mr Tata added.
"I hope it will provide safe, affordable four-wheel transportation to families who till now have not been able to own a car."
Environmentalists are warning that the Nano will add to India's already clogged up roads, and pollution levels will soar. Tata says the Nano will be the least polluting car in India.
Factory row
The four-door Nano has a 33bhp, 624cc engine at the rear. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7957671.stm>
Virgin eyes 150Mb broadband speed
By Darren Waters
Technology editor, BBC News website
"We have an opportunity with our network to provide significantly
higher speeds," Virgin Media's chief executive Neil Berkett told BBC
News.
BT has said its fibre network will hit the first crop of UK cities by early 2010 and will be complete by 2012.
Virgin currently offers a top speed of 50Mbps while BT is pledging 40 to 60Mb.
Mr Berkett said its fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) network was capable of
supporting up to 200Mbps but roll out of higher speeds was a "function
of timing".
He said: "When we look at the market I don't see us getting the returns right now for 100 or 150Mbps.
See what applications work at different speeds
"As we work with application providers, and content providers... there
will be a natural point where we upgrade from 10, 20 and 50Mbps to
something more.
"If BT were to meet the time frame they have suggested - of finishing
by 2012 - I would see us as having much, much faster upstream speed,
running at a minimum of 100Mbps downstream and possibly more. You can
see a real opportunity there." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7961135.stm>
Secrets of mass grave revealed
|
By Freya McClements
BBC News |
|
US researchers have now uncovered the precise location of the grave
|
They found work on the railroads, but within weeks they were all dead, struck down by cholera - or possibly even murdered by locals who believed the immigrants had brought the disease with them.
The men were buried where they had died, in a mass unmarked grave along 'Duffy's Cut', the section of the Philadelphia and Columbia railroad they helped to build.
For the last five years, Dr Frank Watson and a team from Immaculata University in Pennsylvania have been searching for the men's remains - and on Friday, they made the breakthrough they were waiting for.
"We discovered the first two skulls.
"I myself was able to pull out of the first grave the skull of a man who we believe was called John Ruddy, an 18-year-old who came over as a labourer from Donegal to work on the railroad.
|
The story of Duffy's Cut
June 1832: Irish immigrants arrive in the US
August 1832: 57 men die along the railroad and are buried in an unmarked mass grave
2002: Researchers at Immaculata University begin searching for the men's bodies
2009: Bones discovered at the Duffy's Cut site
|
"We also found the skull of an adult man and some leg and toe bones, and a good bit of one of their skeletons."
For Dr Watson and the rest of his team, it was an emotional moment.
"It was almost like a dream.
"There was excitement mixed with sadness that these poor men ended up in such an ignominious site, dumped alongside a hillside at Duffy's Cut.
"But it was also joyous, because we'll now be able to commemorate these men and remember them.
"What we would hope to do is to return some of the bones of these Irishmen back to their native land," said Dr Watson.
Brian Hegarty's great-great-uncle Bernard left Derry in 1832 to work on the railroad. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7459669.stm>
Lasting US legacy in Kyrgyzstan
|
Washington contributes $150m a year in total assistance to Kyrgyzstan
|
"This school was built in 1972 and it was never fully renovated until the Americans came.
"They have fixed everything here - the floors, the windows, doors, plumbing, lighting. They've even painted each room in a different colour," says Ainura.
This is an unusual sight for a rural school in a former Soviet country.
Turning an old rundown building into a modern-looking learning facility became possible only after the American military from the nearby Manas base helped to raise funds.
Four months of work and $100,000
(£69,000) later, the school entrance is adorned with a proud sign: "For
the friendship between the peoples of Kyrgyzstan and the United States
of America." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7959880.stm>
New Zealand company hires hacker
|
Walker's botnet skimmed millions from private bank accounts
|
TelstraClear said former hacker Owen Thor Walker was advising corporate customers on internet crime.
Mr Walker had been at the centre of a criminal network that infiltrated more than a million computers globally.
He was investigated by the authorities in the US, Europe and New Zealand while he was just 16 and still at school.
As well as taking part in an advertising campaign, Mr Walker had delivered a series of seminars to help senior executives and customers understand the security threats to their networks, said TelstraClear spokesman Chris Mirams.
"It was really just ... to let them know the type of cyber threats that are out there, developing," said Mr Mirams, according to the Associated Press news agency. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7962671.stm>
IMF announces new lending reforms
|
Mr Strauss-Kahn said the reforms would help member states
|
The reforms aim to provide flexible credit terms for countries with strong economic policies which could be at risk in the current economic climate.
They will help countries to weather the crisis and return to sustainable growth, the IMF says.
The IMF says the new reforms would streamline loan conditions, simplify costs and increase access to resources.
Countries that qualify will be able to borrow larger amounts and will not be subject to the controversial conditions that the IMF usually requires of borrowers.
"These reforms represent a significant change in the way the Fund can help its member countries - which is especially needed at this time of global crisis," said IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
Precautionary loans
The new system replaces a facility that was created last October for the same purpose that has not been used, says the BBC's economics correspondent Andrew Walker.
The IMF says the new arrangement is likely to be seen by member countries as more useful.
Countries will be able to borrow larger amounts, and the repayment period is longer - a maximum of five years.
Loans will also be available on a precautionary basis to prevent financial crises, as well as to clear up afterwards.
Few low income nations are likely to qualify for these loans, as most of those meeting the eligibility criteria are rich or middle income countries.
But for poorer nations the IMF says it is working to strengthen its capacity to provide emergency support. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7962599.stm>
The real persuader gets to work
|
By Kevin Connolly
BBC News, Washington |
|
Obama is his administration's real persuader
|
President Barack Obama's second live, primetime televised news conference rounded off an extraordinary week in which he had already joshed with Jay Leno, offered us his College Basketball championship picks on ESPN and shared with us his more contemplative side on CBS's 60 minutes.
You would hardly be surprised to turn on a cooking channel and find the president flambeing Crepes Suzettes or come across him warning of late winter storms in the Mississippi Delta on the weather networks.
The United States is the world's most vibrant and absorbing democracy but in one respect at least, living here this week has been rather like living in Eastern Europe before the Iron Curtain came down - every time you turn on the TV, there's the head of state.
Task at hand
This is the second time in the short life of this administration that the White House has asked for - and received - space on network television at a time which forces Fox to reschedule its wildly popular talent show American Idol.
As a presidential communications strategist you don't take a step like that unless you believe there is urgent business to be done.
|
I didn't feel the presidential performance itself was quite as smooth as usual
|
The urgent task at hand of course is the business of persuading the American people that the new government has a clear and convincing plan for ending the recession and fixing the holes in the financial system that caused it.
So far at least, the Obama administration only has one real persuader - and that's Obama himself, his own biggest asset.
He is lucid, articulate, reasonable and a master of the detail of government.
More importantly, he is more popular than some of his administration's own policies - like bailing out the banks.
And
he is certainly more popular than his key appointees like the Treasury
Secretary Timothy Geithner, who may well be the brilliant policy wonk
we were sold in private but who in public finds it difficult to deliver
a line, convince a crowd or clinch an argument. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7962649.stm>
Briny pools 'may exist on Mars'
|
By Paul Rincon
Science reporter, BBC News, The Woodlands, Texas |
|
The probe had surpassed its expected lifetime by more than two months
|
Researchers previously thought water existed largely as ice or as vapour on Mars, because of the low temperatures and atmospheric pressure.
But Nasa's Phoenix lander has shown the presence in Martian soil of perchlorate salts, which can keep water liquid at temperatures of minus 70C.
Pockets of brine might form when soil interacted with ice.
Researchers have been discussing the idea at the 40th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC), here in The Woodlands, Texas.
They were presenting some of the first scientific results from Phoenix, which touched down on Mars's northern plains on 25 May 2008.
"I do think those pools might exist. But there's still more to know about the properties of these perchlorate solutions, such as what their vapour pressure is," Dr Mike Hecht, from Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, explained.
Soil dampness
Phoenix used thrusters to slow its descent to the surface. And these blew away topsoil, exposing water-ice just centimetres beneath.
Dr Hecht said: "Here are all these perchlorate salts right under them, by a few centimetres, is a slab of [water ice]. It doesn't take much of a stretch of the imagination to say that those two materials will interact.
|
One of Phoenix's great achievements was to "touch" the water-ice
|
"And once you get dampness, the perchlorate is very soluble and it will become mobile."
On Earth, perchlorates - salts derived from perchloric acid - are used in solid rocket fuel, fireworks and airbags. Scientists are just starting to understand the important roles they may play on Mars.
Dr Hecht said that forming pockets of liquid on Mars would require just the right concentrations of perchlorate salts. He commented: "In this case we have very little perchlorate and vast slabs of ice, so I can imagine we have an excess of water. This means you would form a pool of low temperature brine if the two ever interacted."
Other researchers cautioned that the concentrations of these salts found at the Phoenix landing site remained a small component of the overall soil chemistry, and that more had to be done to test the idea.
Nevertheless, Dr Hecht said the discovery of these compounds made the Red Planet seem more Earth-like in several respects. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7958471.stm>
Councils 'ignored Iceland risks'
The authorities paid nearly £33m into the banks between 30
September, when their credit ratings were downgraded, and 7 October
when they collapsed.
The Audit Commission criticised Kent County Council, which it found had paid in £8.3m in early October.
Kent said it had been open about its conduct and hoped to get the cash back.
But the fate of the £954m deposited by councils and other public bodies in Icelandic banks remains uncertain.<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7963986.stm>
A case of 'people power' in China?
|
By Chris Hogg
BBC News, Shanghai |
|
These houses would have to make way for the maglev line
|
But have the demonstrators who appear to have halted plans for an extension of a hi-tech magnetic levitation train line through the suburbs of Shanghai really triumphed?
Or does their story just highlight the limits on the power that ordinary citizens can enjoy in an authoritarian country like China?
It was mainly middle class demonstrators who opposed plans to extend the magnetic levitation line, or maglev for short.
Homeowners in particular - a group which has not traditionally been at the forefront of large-scale protests in this country - objected to the extension, which was designed to link Shanghai's two airports and go on to the neighbouring city of Hangzhou.
After decades of economic development here, these were the winners, not the losers.
They are the people who benefited from China's economic growth, and invested huge amounts relative to their income to purchase their homes, only to see those investments threatened by the proposed new maglev line.
They said that the value of their houses had already been badly damaged by the proposal to site the line so close to their front doors.
And they feared the magnetic fields used to propel the maglev train down the tracks would damage their health. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7961958.stm>
Brown pre-G20 tour reaches Brazil
|
Mr Brown will head to Chile after holding talks with Brazil's president
|
The UK leader is on a three-continent trip round major economies ahead of the G20 summit in London next week.
He is due to hold talks with Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Earlier in New York Mr Brown urged leaders to "take action" at the G20 to reform the banking system, protect jobs and help the world's poorest countries.
Following talks with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Mr Brown said that at the G20 summit in London "doing nothing is no longer an option".
The London summit must ensure "strong growth and recovery", he said.
|
G20 LONDON SUMMIT
World leaders will meet next week in London to discuss measures to tackle the downturn. See
our in-depth guide
to the G20 summit.
The G20 countries are Argentina, Australia, Brazil,
Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico,
Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United
Kingdom, the US and the EU.
|
He added that there must be help for the poorest countries, saying that the global downturn had pushed 100 million people into poverty.
The Brazil leg of the trip will also include talks with business leaders. The final part of the tour will be in Chile.
Mr Brown believes no conversation about the global economy is possible without including the world's ninth largest economy, said BBC political editor Nick Robinson.
On his first visit to Brazil, the PM will argue the country deserves a more prominent place at the global economic top table, said our correspondent.
Like other developing countries, Brazil's trade has collapsed in recent months as the credit which underwrites it has disappeared.
Mr Brown will argue that the G20 can and should restore that credit and get trade moving again - one of the ways he believes the global economy can be revived.
Expand trade
Amid
talk of rifts between nations and continents over the best way to
handle the crisis, Mr Brown has insisted there was "far more agreement"
among world leaders than was being portrayed. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7964910.stm>
Striking French workers free boss
|
Mr Rousselet said the conditions in his office had not been too bad
|
Employees of the US-owned firm 3M had held its head of French operations, Luc Rousselet, for more than a day.
They freed him only after he signed a deal to re-negotiate terms for redundant workers.
The incident was the latest of a number of cases of direct action by French workers trying to fight the effects of the economic slowdown.
About 20 workers shut Mr Rousselet in his office in the town of Pithiviers on Tuesday evening.
They
eventually freed him after he agreed to re-negotiate compensation
packages for the 110 workers facing redundancy at the plant. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7964122.stm>
France set to ban bank bonuses
|
President Sarkozy is responding to public anger over bank bonuses
|
The agency quoted presidential official Claude Gueant as saying the decree would be adopted next week.
Bonuses to executives of troubled banks have caused anger across the world.
US
lawmakers have voted for a 90% tax on big bonuses to employees of banks
that have taken government, and therefore taxpayer, funds. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7965566.stm>
Mars domes may be 'mud volcanoes'
|
By Paul Rincon
Science reporter, BBC News, The Woodlands, Texas |
|
The structures could be the best place to search for life
|
If life ever existed on Mars, the evidence could be buried deep below the surface, where it may be warm enough for water to remain in a liquid state.
Mud volcanoes could transport rocks from depths of several kilometres up to the surface, where robotic explorers could reach them.
Details were presented at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Texas.
Using images taken by Nasa's Mars Odyssey spacecraft, Carlton Allen and Dorothy Oehler of Nasa's Johnson Space Center in Houston identified dozens of mounds in the northern plains of Mars which they say bear a striking resemblance to mud volcanoes.
Infrared data also show the domes cool more quickly at night than the surrounding rock, as one might expect if they were made of sediment.
Together with David Baker from Brown University, the researchers used instruments on Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) to observe several of these structures in a northern region known as Acidalia Planitia.
Data from the MRO's Crism experiment indicate that the material in the domes is more oxidised than the rock of the surrounding plains. This might suggest the presence of iron oxides, which form in the presence of liquid water.
They also took pictures of the structures with the HiRise camera on MRO; the images show the bright domes standing out against the dark basaltic rock of the surrounding plains.
Dr Allen told BBC News the structures resembled smooth cones with "no breaks", which visibly feathered out towards the margins. The observations, he said, were consistent with material that is "smooth, soft and easily eroded".
Gas vents
|
Mud volcanoes are relatively common on Earth
|
On Earth, the largest concentration of mud volcanoes is in Azerbaijan and the adjacent Caspian Sea. But they have been found at more than 40 sites on land and at more than 20 locations beneath the sea.
They are formed when pressurised gas and liquid from as much as several kilometres down, breach the surface. They belch out slurries of fluid, mud and rocks, as well as gases such as methane.
"In Azerbaijan, there is so much methane coming out that they can catch fire," said Dr Allen.
This raises the possibility that mud volcanoes could contribute to the methane observed in the Martian atmosphere.
Methane should last for only a short time in the atmosphere until it is destroyed by sunlight, so its continued presence means it is being replenished by some unknown process. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7966437.stm>
US plans to rein in Wall Street
The measures are designed to prevent the kind of systemic risk-taking among banks that has contributed to the current financial crisis.
Mr Geithner told a US House Committee that a simpler, more effective regulatory system was needed.
He said the government had not had "adequate tools" to handle the crisis.
'New rules'
The treasury secretary said the existing financial system had "failed in basic, fundamental ways".
"These failures have caused a great loss of confidence in the basic fabric of our financial system," he said.
He also talked of "unwise" risk-taking and a failure of "market discipline".
|
We need better, smarter, tougher regulation
Timothy Geithner, US Treasury Secretary
|
"Regulated institutions held too little capital relative to the risks to which they were exposed," he said.
Mr Geithner said that "new rules of the game" were needed to achieve comprehensive reform, rules that "must be simpler and more effectively enforced".
He said the financial system "needs to be subject to strong oversight by the government".
He also called for more openness and more transparency among financial institutions, and more integration among regulators.
New framework
"We need better, smarter, tougher regulation," Mr Geithner said.
He outlined five elements of a plan to achieve this:
- Establishing a single entity responsible for stability among major institutions
- Enforcing more conservative capital requirements for financial institutions
- Forcing investment companies of a certain size to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the US financial regulator
- Establishing a framework for derivative markets
- Strengthening requirements for money market funds.
As a result of these initiatives, hedge funds - investment funds that have been criticised for increasing stock market volatility and forcing some share prices down - would be subject to regulation.
The new system would also be designed to ensure that complacency resulting from the so-called 'too big to fail' syndrome, where companies assume the government will bail them out if necessary, would be eradicated, Mr Geithner said.
Strict capital requirements would be enforced, he added, so that risk taking would be curtailed.
'Moment of opportunity'
The treasury secretary said that time was of the essence in implementing these five elements.
"We have a moment of opportunity, we need to act," he said.
He also stressed the importance of the international effort to reform the global financial system.
"We will work with the Europeans, we cannot move alone," he said.
However, Mr Geithner did say there was a limit to how long the US could wait for global co-operation. He said the US had to look after its own interests.
"We cannot wait for consensus with the rest of the world [if that jeopardises US recovery]," he said.
'Catastrophic damage'
Questioned as to whether there was an alternative to using taxpayer money to bail out financial institutions, Mr Geithner reinforced the government's argument that it had no choice.
"There are circumstances where it's cheaper for the taxpayer over time for the government to take action. Letting certain financial institutions fail can cause acute, catastrophic damage [to every US citizen]," he said.
Former SEC head Harvey Pitt said that Mr Geithner's plan was a start, but that the Obama administration does not sufficiently understand the problems it faces.
"We are doomed to repeat past failures," he told BBC News.
"Before
you can regulate you have to have a fundamental base of knowledge and I
think that knowledge is lacking in our government." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7966023.stm>
High growth, low votes
|
India has recorded high economic growth in recent years
|
Predicting election outcomes in India is a hazardous activity; inferring them from economic performance is even more hazardous.
Going by per-capita income growth, one would predict a resounding victory for the ruling Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA).
At 7.4%, per-capita income growth during the first four years of the UPA rule has been by far the highest of any four-year period in India's post-independence history.
Yet, if the electorate goes by the contribution the present government has made to the accelerated growth in incomes, it would hand the latter its worst defeat.
The UPA government has perhaps done the least of all governments since the 1991 Narasimha Rao-led Congress administration to advance economic reforms.
At the outset, it committed itself to not
reforming India's archaic labour laws. Sadly, it also failed to deliver
in areas it had assigned high priority. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7950027.stm>
Volunteers flock to space experiment
|
By Richard Galpin
BBC News, Moscow |
|
The six volunteers will live in cramped metal containers
|
How about the following: locking yourself inside a small metal container for three months without any communication with the outside world, with electronic monitors attached to various parts of your body and with frozen baby food and cereal bars for breakfast, lunch and dinner?
To add to the fun you'll have five companions who will do everything possible to stop you trying to escape before the three months are up.
Meanwhile, from a control room outside, a team of scientists will monitor your every move checking for any signs that you are starting to crack up.
And banish all hope of finding solace through alcohol or tobacco. Both are strictly forbidden. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7966731.stm>
Concern over new current accounts
|
By Louise Greenwood
Your Money Reporter |
|
Halifax is one of a number of banks to offer cash rewards on some accounts
|
Some banks use cash bonuses to entice customers to sign up, but overdraft charges can be as high as £5 a day.
Which? said it believed banks were planning to end free banking if they lost their landmark battle over charges with the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).
The British Bankers Association said the accounts were simply the product of a competitive marketplace. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7969395.stm>
Wind-powered car breaks record
|
Wind powered Greenbird reached speeds of 126.1 mph
|
Richard Jenkins reached 126.1mph (202.9km/h) in his Greenbird car on the dry plains of Ivanpah Lake in Nevada.
Mr Jenkins told the BBC that it had taken him 10 years of "hard work" to break the record and that, on the day, "things couldn't have been better".
American Bob Schumacher set the previous record of 116 mph in 1999, driving his Iron Duck vehicle.
"It's great, it's one of those things that you spend so long trying to do and when it actually happens, it's almost too easy," Mr Jenkins told the BBC.
The Greenbird is a carbon fibre composite vehicle
that uses wind (and nothing else) for power. The only metalwork used is
for the wing bearings and the wheel unit. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7968860.stm>
Young people on the G20 Summit
Students from Glasgow, Islamabad and Mbabane have been answering questions about how they have been affected by the financial crisis and what they would like the G20 Summit to achieve.
World prepares for big switch-off
|
This photo shows Sydney before and after switching off last year
|
The initiative, Earth Hour, was begun in Sydney two years ago by green campaigners keen to cut energy use.
Correspondents say the aim is to create a huge wave of public pressure to influence a meeting in Copenhagen later this year to seek a new climate treaty.
Critics describe the event as a symbolic and meaningless gesture.
The switch-off is expected to take place in more than 3,400 towns and cities across 88 countries, at 2030 in each local time zone.
Earth Hour was launched in 2007 as a solo event in Sydney, Australia, with more than two million people involved. Last year's event claimed the participation of 370 cities.
Locations taking part this time include Sydney's Opera House, Edinburgh Castle in Scotland, the Bird's Nest Stadium in Beijing and the Egyptian Pyramids.
Fast-food giant MacDonald's has pledged to dim its "golden arches" at 500 locations, while celebrities such as actress Cate Blanchett and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have promised support.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon backed the initiative in a video posted this month on the event's YouTube channel.
"Earth Hour is a way for the citizens of the world to send a clear message," he said. "They want action on climate change."
People are invited to provide blogs and short video clips on how they spend their time.<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7969515.stm>
'Politics should be about people, not profit'
The Put People First alliance of 150 charities and unions wants politicians and leaders due to meet in Britain on Thursday to focus on the needs of the world's poorest and most vulnerable people.
The BBC gauged reaction to the protest march as campaigners made their way from London's Embankment to Hyde Park. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7969804.stm>
G20 'make or break', Soros says
|
By Joe Lynam
BBC News |
|
Mr Soros said the financial system had to be built up from the foundations
|
In a BBC interview, Mr Soros said the international financial system had collapsed because it was flawed and it had to be restructured.
Mr Soros say it may be the last chance to prevent a full-scale depression.
He said the G20 meeting had to come up with concrete solutions to help the developing world in particular, which had been been worst hit. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7970199.stm>
Obama gets tough with carmakers
|
President Barack Obama is running out of patience with GM and Chrysler
|
Long-awaited details of a government rescue package for carmakers General Motors and Chrysler will be revealed.
Mr Obama is expected to insist that more must be done by the firms.
He will not automatically hand over billions of dollars more of government aid and has not ruled out bankruptcy for either one of the carmakers.
The president's auto task force has ruled that the two carmakers have not met conditions on loans already made.
The state will guarantee capital only for the next few weeks, it said. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7972464.stm>
Pupils 'should study Twitter'
|
Pupils could have more opportunity to use internet sites like Twitter
|
A review of the primary school curriculum in England will be published in a final report next month.
But the Guardian newspaper says draft copies it has seen shows pupils will no longer have to study the Victorian period or the Second World War.
Ministers said British history would always be a core part of education.
The review of the primary school curriculum was commissioned by Schools Secretary Ed Balls last year and is being drawn up by Sir Jim Rose, former chief of England's schools watchdog, Ofsted.
The Guardian said the draft review requires primary school children to be familiar with blogging, podcasts, Wikipedia and Twitter as sources of information and forms of communication.
They must gain "fluency" in handwriting and keyboard skills, and learn how to use a spellchecker alongside how to spell, the article said.
|
The government says history will still be studied
|
While schools would still be able to opt to teach Victorian history or the Second World War, they would not be required to, the Guardian said. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/7962912.stm>
Art exhibition fuels US-Cuba thaw
|
By Michael Voss
BBC News, Havana |
It's part of the island's biennial art festival, which every two years features hundreds of artists from Cuba and around the world. Until now it has been difficult for Americans to attend.
The exhibition is called Chelsea visits Havana and features about 30 artists from more than two dozen galleries in New York's arty Chelsea neighbourhood.
The show's American curator is gallery owner Alberto Magnan, whose parents left Cuba when he was five years old.
"I would love for this show to be a beginning step towards both countries getting a little closer together and starting a dialogue and I think art is a great way to do it," he said.
Alberto Magnan first approached the Cuban authorities three years ago with the idea of bringing a cross-section of contemporary American art to Havana.
But he had to wait for new presidents in both countries for the idea to come to fruition. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7970647.stm>
Life: A medical condition
|
By Alasdair Cross
Producer, Medicalisation of Normality |
|
Hysteria once preoccupied medical science
|
Is the human condition becoming a medical condition?
Ten per cent of British children are regarded as having a clinically recognisable mental disorder, 34 million prescriptions for anti-depressants were written in the UK in 2007, while it is estimated that 10% of US children take Ritalin to combat behaviour problems.
Dr Tim Kendall, Joint Director of the National Collaboration Centre for Mental Health and a key government adviser is deeply concerned at what he sees as a medicalisation of a vast swathe of society.
He said: "I think there is an inherent danger from increasingly classifying people.
"If you look at the American Psychiatric Association 'bible', you'll see almost every piece of human behaviour can be classified as being in some way aberrant."
Dr Kendall sees dangers in a "tendency for new categories to be invented, often at the behest of drug companies looking for a new drug".
Medical historian, Dr Louise Foxcroft agrees, pointing to ill-defined conditions such as female sexual dysfunction and to the erectile hardness scale promoted by the producers of Viagra which she claims "is a creation of fear and anxiety".
It is certainly not a new phenomenon. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7967851.stm>
Video games 'can improve vision'
|
Who says it's bad for your eyesight?
|
Researchers found playing the games improved the ability to notice even very small changes in shades of grey against a uniform background.
"Contrast sensitivity" is important in situations such as driving at night, or in conditions of poor visibility.
The Nature Neuroscience study raises the possibility of using a video game training regime to improve vision.
Contrast sensitivity is often one of the first aspects of vision to be affected by ageing.
|
There is some evidence that the visual system can learn
John Sloper
Moorfields Eye Hospital |
It can also be affected by conditions such as amblyopia, known as "lazy eye".
Improving contrast sensitivity usually requires physical changes in eye optics, through eye surgery, glasses or contact lenses.
A team from the University of Rochester studied expert video game players playing games involving aiming and shooting at virtual targets.
They found that they had better contrast sensitivity when compared with players who played non-action video games.
These results were not because people with better contrast sensitivity were more likely to be action video game players - giving non-video game players intensive daily practice in video game playing improved this group's performance on tests of contrast sensitivity.
Crucially,
the improvements in this study were sustained for months or even years
in some cases, suggesting that time spent in front of a computer screen
is not necessarily harmful for vision, as has sometimes been suggested. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7967381.stm>
Expenses probe to be speeded up
|
There have been widespread calls for reform of the system
|
The Committee on Standards in Public Life has announced it plans to bring forward its inquiry into MPs' expenses.
Chairman Sir Christopher Kelly said it was "now obvious" work had to go ahead "as soon as possible".
The committee had been due to start its inquiry in the autumn but Gordon Brown wrote to Sir Christopher asking for progress "as soon as practical".
The news comes as it is claimed details of all MPs' expenses receipts are being offered for sale for up to £300,000.
Labour MP Sir Stuart Bell, who sits on the Speaker's Commons Estimates Committee, told the BBC it was investigating the reports.
Films claim
The standards committee's decision to bring forward its inquiry follows revelations about the use of second-home allowances by ministers.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith was criticised for claiming more than £116,000 for her family home in the West Midlands after nominating her sister's property in London - which she shared - as her main residence.
It has emerged that she also mistakenly claimed expenses for adult films watched by her husband at the house in her constituency of Redditch, Worcestershire. The money has been repaid.
|
This is not something which can be done with a quick fix
Sir Christopher Kelly
Committee on Standards in Public Life |
Earlier this month it emerged that employment minister Tony McNulty had claimed the second-home allowance towards his parents' house in Harrow, north-west London, which he used in addition to a flat in central London.
Sir Christopher told the BBC: "It may be the case that, in the past, some Members of Parliament regarded expenses as part of their salary in the belief that they weren't paid enough...
"I've no doubt the recommendations we produce will be challenging."
He added: "We intend to do a fundamental, wide-ranging and independent review."
He said there were several different options to consider but that people would "find it hard to understand that any group of people could take responsibility for fixing their own allowances".
In a statement, Sir Christopher said: "It's now obvious that this piece of work needs to start as soon as possible. We're going to defer work on the current inquiry to begin work immediately."
He also said: "The situation has changed quite dramatically over the last few months and I am pleased that there is now such widespread political consensus on the need for reform."
Sir Christopher added:
"This is not something which can be done with a quick fix; we want to
do a thorough piece of work. Our firm intention is to publish our
report towards the end of the year." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7974139.stm>
Unrest threat as crisis hits Russia
The BBC's Richard Galpin has been to a northern Russian industrial town to investigate the political threat of mass protests.
|
All three factories in Pikalevo now stand idle
|
Once visited, the grim town of Pikalevo is best forgotten.
Built 50 years ago in the remote, forested plains east of Russia's second largest city, St Petersburg, it stands as a monument to the fundamental flaws of the Soviet Union's command economy.
Its population of 21,000 people lives or dies by the complex of aluminium, cement and potash factories which are the town's only raison d'etre.
But now all three factories stand idle, forced by the economic crisis to close their gates.
Their workers either sit at home or throng the small unemployment office tucked behind the main street.
The rattle and hum of machinery in Pikalevo has been replaced by the cold silence of austerity and hardship. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7973084.stm>
France is threatening G20 walkout
France threatens G20 walkout
Christine Lagarde told Hardtalk that President Nicolas Sarkozy would not sign any agreement if he felt "the deliverables are not there".
Strengthening financial regulation will be one of the key issues at the G20.
France wants a stronger global financial regulator than the US and the UK would like.
|
President Sarkozy wants a powerful global regulator
|
If France were to leave the summit, it would be a blow to both UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and US President Barack Obama.
Both men have spoken of their high hopes for the meeting to stimulate international recovery.
"Leaders
meeting in London must supply the oxygen of confidence to today's
global economy and give people in all of our countries renewed hope for
the future," Mr Brown said. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7974190.stm>
Giant laser experiment powers up
|
NIF is a step on what is still a very long road to fusion reality
|
The US National Ignition Facility is designed to demonstrate the feasibility of nuclear fusion, a process that could offer abundant clean energy.
The lab will kick-start the reaction by focusing 192 giant laser beams on a tiny pellet of hydrogen fuel.
To work, it must show that more energy can be extracted from the process than is required to initiate it.
Professor Mike Dunne, who leads a European venture that is also pursuing nuclear fusion with lasers, told BBC News that if NIF was successful, it would be a "seismic event".
"It would mark the transition for laser fusion from 'physics' to 'engineering reality'," he said.
|
The world is looking to NIF to provide a clear, unequivocal demonstration that lasers can initiate fusion energy gain
Prof Mike Dunne
European Hiper project |
The California-based NIF is the largest experimental science facility in the US and contains the world's most powerful laser. It has taken 12 years to build.
"This is a major milestone," said Dr Ed Moses, director of the facility.
"We
are well on our way to achieving what we set out to do - controlled,
sustained nuclear fusion and energy gain for the first time ever in a
laboratory setting." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7972865.stm>
Polypill 'could become a reality'
|
The polypill has been hailed as the magic bullet to heart problems
|
The concept of a polypill for everyone over 55 to cut heart disease by up to 80% was mooted over five years ago, but slow progress has been made since.
Now a trial in India shows such a pill has the desired effects and is safe and well-tolerated by those who take it.
Although The Lancet study is proof of concept, experts still question the ethics of a pill for lifestyle issues.
|
There is a danger that lifestyle factors could be overlooked in favour of 'popping a pill'
Mike Rich of UK charity the Blood Pressure Association
|
Critics say the problems of high blood pressure and cholesterol should be tackled with diet and exercise rather than by popping a pill.
The
polypill used in the latest study combines five active pharmacological
ingredients widely available separately - aspirin, a statin to lower
cholesterol and three blood pressure-lowering drugs - as well as folic
acid. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7971456.stm>
Public 'backs economic reforms'
|
By Steve Schifferes
Economics reporter, BBC News |
|
The recession has spread around the globe
|
More than 70% of people in 29 countries think major changes are needed in the way the global economy is run.
Nearly two thirds - 62% - of the public say the downturn has negatively affected them, and half say the downturn will last more than two years.
There is also broad support for reform of domestic economic policy.
The survey was conducted by GlobeScan along with the University of Maryland.
Slightly smaller majorities support global economic reform in the G20 countries, 15 of which were included in the BBC survey.
In G20 countries, 65% support major changes to the global economic system, and 62% support domestic reforms, compared with 68% who support domestic reforms in the sample as a whole.
The findings suggest that the public will be prepared to back plans if agreed at the London summit for global economic co-ordination.
But the poll suggested that in four
countries - Russia, Japan, Mexico and India - which are all in the G20,
there is not majority support for major changes to the international
economic order. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7970625.stm>
Halt to post sell-off called for
|
Ministers say Royal Mail needs urgent modernisation
|
The Business and Enterprise Committee said there was a "worrying lack of transparency" to the deal.
Committee chairman Peter Luff conceded Royal Mail's vast pension deficit had to be tackled, but said it did not follow a "part sale" was necessary.
The government says their plans are the best way to make Royal Mail profitable.
It
argues a "strategic partnership" with a private-sector company - which
would take a stake of about 30% in Royal Mail - is the best way of
modernising the service, which currently has a multibillion-pound
pension deficit. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7975747.stm>
Plea for reforms after migrant tragedy
Tens of thousands of migrants attempt to reach Europe by sea every year
Reacting to the news that at least 200 migrants were feared dead off the coast of Libya, after the smugglers' boat which was supposed to take them to Italy capsized, the head of the UN refugee agency, Antonio Guterres, said the barriers to legal migration had become too high.
"This is a tragedy that is multiplying itself, in the Mediterranean, in the Gulf of Aden, in south-east Asia. More and more people are trying desperately to move," Mr Guterres told the BBC.
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Those
people [would-be migrants] will take risks if the doors aren't open.
They'll go in by the back window if the front door isn't open
Patrick Taran
International Labour Organisation |
While the trend towards globalisation was encouraging free trade, there were still lethal barriers to people, he added.
"I think it's important to recognise that in today's world where as we have seen, money moves so freely, and goods tend to move also more and more freely, there are still tremendous obstacles for people."
"People
need to move because they can no longer live in their countries of
origin because of war, because of environmental degradation, because of
poverty, there are many reasons that force people to move." <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7975607.stm>
Canadian hitman admits 28 deaths
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People who knew Gallant described him as inconspicuous
|
Gerald Gallant's victims included bikers and alleged members of organised crime groups, as well as bystanders who were not intended to be targets.
Already serving life for a 2001 murder, he pleaded guilty to a further 27.
Gallant, 58, was caught in 2006 after fleeing to Europe when detectives linked him to that killing.
Having turned police informer, he will not get additional jail time for his other crimes and is eligible to apply for parole in 25 years.
Under his plea deal, he is barred from writing a book or making a film about his crimes but prosecutors said he would receive protection and would be given $50 (US $40, £28) a month to spend at the prison canteen.
Quebec has been wracked by drug-related turf wars between motorcyclist gangs. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7975704.stm>
G20 leaders gather amid security
BBC editors look at the problems and possible solutions of the G20 summit
The G20 summit takes place amid tight security and police warnings of "unprecedented" levels of protest.
Workers in London's financial district have been told to dress down and stay home to avoid provoking demonstrators.
President Barack Obama has arrived in London on his first visit to Europe since taking office, with hopes high that he can forge a new global deal.
But expectations that the summit will come up with a definitive plan to stimulate the world economy are receding as rifts emerge between Europe and the US and UK.
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G20 LONDON SUMMIT
World leaders will meet later this week in London to discuss measures to tackle the downturn. See
our in-depth guide
to the G20 summit.
The G20 countries are Argentina, Australia, Brazil,
Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico,
Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the UK, the US
and the EU.
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The two-day summit officially begins on Wednesday evening as the leaders from the G20, which groups the world's most powerful economies, attend a reception with the Queen at Buckingham Palace.
But
detailed bargaining will take place at a series of face-to-face
meetings earlier in the day, including a breakfast meeting between
Prime Minister Gordon Brown and President Obama. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7975320.stm>
G20 ‘must give money to Africa’
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Africa's diamond trade has been severely hit by the downturn
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The group of the world's most powerful countries are meeting in the UK to discuss the global economic crisis.
Other international aid agencies have also expressed concerns that the needs of developing countries in Africa and elsewhere will be forgotten.
But UK minister Lord Malloch Brown has promised that Africa's needs will be addressed at the summit.
Speaking at an event at London's Chatham House think tank, he said the UK hoped a global plan for economic reform would include a package of assistance arranged through the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
Oxfam says Africa is looking for serious money and recognition that the crisis is hitting the poorest countries too. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7976878.stm>
OnLive games service 'will work'
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By Darren Waters
Technology editor, BBC News website |
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The service will be available later in the year and charge a monthly fee
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Steve Perlman said critics had not even used the system.
OnLive turns games into video data sent across the net to a hardware add-on, or software plug-in, which decompresses the data back into video.
The firm says a revolutionary video compression algorithm and custom silicon makes it possible.
OnLive has been in development for the last seven years and has signed up content partners, including EA, Ubisoft, Take2, Eidos, Atari, Codemasters, Epic and THQ
The subscription service will feature games such as Burnout, Fear 2, Tomb Raider: Underworld and Crysis: Warhead.
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We are not doing video encoding in the conventional sense
Steve Perlman, OnLive
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Mr Perlman, who led the early developments into video streaming service QuickTime while at Apple, told BBC News: "We have nine of the largest game publishers in world signed up.
"They have spent several years in some cases actually going and reviewing our technology before allowing us to associate with their company names and allowing us to have access to their first-tier franchises."
The service has raised eyebrows in some quarters given the difficulties of encoding High Definition video in near real time at servers in data centres, and streaming it over the open internet to a user.
Delivering real-time streaming game play is seen by some as an insurmountable problem, even before factoring in the necessity of sending back telemetry from a game controller across the net to the data centre.
"We are not doing video encoding in the conventional sense," explained Mr Perlman, dismissing an article in gaming website Eurogamer that said the service was unworkable.
"It's a very ignorant article," said Mr Perlman, who said Eurogamer had conflated issues of frame rate and latency.
"They are independent factors," he said.
OnLive
has said it has created a video compression algorithm designed
specifically for video games that can encode and compress video into
data in about one millisecond. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7976206.stm>
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