Information Technology

Influencing Brain Mechanisms may Help Control Nicotine Addiction

2007-12-09T23:37:00.000-08:00

Researchers at the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) have revealed that influencing brain mechanisms may help people break their addiction to nicotine.

Researchers discovered that nicotine has significant effects on brain GABA, a chemical substance of the central nervous system that inhibits neurons in the brain, which could potentially help curtail the effects of nicotine. Graeme Mason, Ph.D., associate professor in the Magnetic Resonance Research Center in the Departments of Diagnostic Radiology and Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine and an ACNP member said that the research would lead them to find ways for quitting smoking. “GABA is just one of a complex network of actors that promotes addiction, and we’re hoping that this research will ultimately lead us to ways to help people quit smoking,” said Mason. The researchers gave people, who smoked regularly, nicotine inhalers that deliver the same amount of the drug as in one cigarette. The findings showed that the amount of GABA in the subjects’ brains rose about 10 percent, but the brain was found to make GABA four times faster after using the inhalers, and the rate of new GABA generation remained high for at least 45 minutes. This denoted that by keeping the supply of GABA levels high has the potential to reduce the pleasurable effects of smoking, in terms of duration and intensity. Tobacco is one of the most widely used substances; it kills more than 435,000 Americans each year, and despite increasing public awareness of the health risks associated with its use, little reduction in smoking prevalence has been achieved nationwide in recent years. The study was presented at the American College of ACNP annual meeting.

Nokia tunes up for battle with Apple

2007-12-04T18:18:00.003-08:00

Nokia has teamed up with Universal Music to allow mobile phone users unlimited free downloads from the largest music company in the world's catalogue, a move that should stimulate significant mobile music usage and put pressure on Apple's iTunes which dominates the download market.

As part of its move into services, Nokia has launched a new offer called "Comes With Music", which will be available from the second half of next year whenever a user buys a new Nokia handset. The consumer will be able to download an unlimited amount of songs from Universal's back catalogue, which boasts millions of songs from artists such as Willie Nelson, Elton John and Bon Jovi and new acts such as Amy Winehouse and Teddy Thompson. Once downloaded, the user will keep the songs.

The market for music downloaded straight on to mobile phones is still nascent, but has been given a publicity fillip by the launch of Apple's iPhone. However, Apple's dominant position in the digital download space, where iTunes commands a market share of around 80 per cent on some estimates, is not yet replicated in the mobile handset market where Nokia is by far the largest player with well over 1 million sales a day. For music companies, mobile phones provide direct access into a consumer's pocket, no matter where they are.

Universal Music has moved to reduce its dependence on iTunes and in July it refused to renew a long-term agreement with Apple, instead making its content available on rival platforms. It is thought Universal will take a cut of the revenue Nokia books when selling the device while the music will be tracked via digital rights management to ensure the artist is compensated for the download.

Mark Milligan, an analyst with Jupiter Research, said: "Nokia is in a unique position to turn the mobile music market on its head. This offering is a massive step in that direction." He called the move "brave", arguing Universal is the most "digitally ambitious and innovative of the record labels – ironically, with least need to be". However, he said the move was risky as it suggests the only way to drive mass-market adoption of digital music is to give it away.

Nokia tunes up for battle with Apple

2007-12-04T18:18:00.001-08:00

Apple sued over visual voicemail patent

2007-12-04T18:17:00.001-08:00

Klausner Technologies Inc said on Monday the company had filed a $US360 million suit against Apple and AT&T over voicemail patents that Klausner claims the Apple iPhone infringes.
New York-based Klausner said the lawsuit also names Comcast, Cablevision Systems and eBay's Skype as infringing its patent for "visual voicemail." The plaintiff seeks an additional $US300 million from the three.

Klausner said in a statement that it filed the lawsuit in U.S. Court for the Eastern District of Texas. A copy of the filing was not yet available from the court.

The suit alleges asserts that the defendants' internet-based voicemail products and services violate a Klausner patent. It seeks damages and future royalties estimated at $US300 million, according to the press release.

The complaint involves U.S. patent 5,572,576, the same one at issue in a suit Klausner filed in 2006 against voice-over-internet telephone service provider Vonage Holdings Corp. The two sides agreed to settle that earlier case in October 2007, according a spokesman for Klausner.
Vonage is now a licensee of Klausner's voicemail technology for its Vonage Voicemail Plus service, as is Time Warner Inc's

AOL for its AOL Voicemail services, Klausner said.

Klausner sued Apple over different patents involving the Apple Newton in the mid-1990s, a spokeswoman said. Apple later agreed to a licensing deal with Klausner, she said. The new suit naming Apple as a defendant targets the sleek visual voicemail application offered by Apple in its iPhone.

The company alleged in its statement that Cablevision's Optimum Voicemail, Comcast's Digital Voice Voicemail and eBay's Skype Voicemail violate Klausner's patent by allowing users to selectively retrieve and listen to voice messages via message inbox displays.

An Apple spokeswoman said the company does not comment on pending litigation.

EBay spokesman Hani Durzy said his company has not received the suit and would not comment until its lawyers have seen it.

"We haven't seen it," echoed a Cablevision spokesman, who declined to comment further.
The suit was filed for the plaintiff by the California law firm of Dovel & Luner in Texas. "We have litigated this patent successfully on two prior occasions," Greg Dovel of Dovel & Luner, said in the statement issued by Klausner.

Is the BlackBerry adding a touchscreen?

2007-12-04T18:12:00.000-08:00

BlackBerry versus iPhone. Business versus fun. But could the serious smartphone be about to nick a bit of Apple’s pizzazz? It could if the rumours about a BlackBerry sporting a touchscreen are true...

According to the Boy Genius website, such a model is on the cards. The site even published an alleged picture of the device, although it didn’t say if this was Photoshopped concept art or a genuine snap.

The website also gave details of the supposed specifications.

"It most certainly will have a 3G radio and we’re not talking about the European bands," Boy Genius said.

"Second, this isn’t your momma’s 3G, this is going to be HSDPA."
The device will also allegedly boast a 600MHz processor and a Backup/Restore function to automatically copy your files to a memory card.

As for the release date? Well that’s more speculation. Boy Genius guesses “we won’t see it this year. Most likely early '08".

So what did BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) have to say about all this?
"The official line from BlackBerry is that 'RIM does not comment on rumour or speculation'," a spokeswoman said, spoiling all our fun.

Apple sued over visual voicemail patent

2007-12-04T18:07:00.000-08:00

North East Business Awards rules

2007-12-03T20:47:00.000-08:00

Celebratingexcellence
THIS will be the eighth year of the North East Business Awards in their revised format.
In that time these awards, organised by the Evening Gazette and The Journal, have grown to be among the best-known and most respected throughout the business community in the North-east.
Entries are invited from all types of businesses.
There are three sub-regions:
Tees Valley
Durham and Wearside
Tyneside and Northumberland
The 11 winners from each of these areas go forward to the regional final where the winners of the North East Business Awards will be announced.
Aim of the awards
THE awards aim to recognise achievement, to encourage excellence and to celebrate success.
The sponsors
THEY are sponsored by a whole host of companies and organisations. The sheer quality and the blue-chip nature of the sponsors adds to the prestige and gravitas of the awards.
The judging
EACH award has a separate judging panel with an appropriate chairperson, nominated by the award sponsor.
The decision of each judging panel is final and while every effort will be made to give feedback to entrants, no specific correspondence will be entered into.
The categories
THE categories are:
Small Business

Corporate Social Responsibility

Export

Internet and ICT

Innovation

Environment

Learning, Training and Skills

Technology

Services

Manufacturing

Best Cultural and Creative Business (North East final only)

Company of the Year

Event locations

THE regional events are held on:

February 28 - Tyneside and Northumberland, Newcastle Marriott Hotel, Gosforth Park.
March 6 - Tees Valley, venue to be confirmed.

March 13 - Durham and Wearside, Ramside Hall Hotel, Durham.

May 1 - Regional final, Hardwick Hall Hotel, near Sedgefield.

How to enter

INDIVIDUAL companies and organisations can enter a maximum of three separate categories.
Entries must relate to business activity during 2007.
The awards are open to companies of all sizes and organisations with a significant presence in any of the sub-regions.

The closing date is 5pm on December 7.
Nomination forms are available online at: www.northeastbusinessawards.co.uk.
Table bookings can be made via Claire Evans, events manager, on 0191 201 6089 or email: claire.evans@ncjmedia.co.uk

HP launches new Automated Operations software suite to accelerate business outcomes

2007-12-03T20:43:00.000-08:00

HP launched its new Automated Operations software suite to help chief information officers transform IT.
This integrated suite of products is designed to reduce the day-to-day cost of IT operations, enabling a shift of resources to fuel business innovation and growth. Next-generation IT Operations is a significant pillar of HP Software's Business Technology Optimization (BTO) system, which combines assets from HP OpenView, Peregrine, Mercury and Opsware. 'HP's mission is to be the strategic partner to global enterprise customers, and we have been aggressively expanding our software portfolio in the last two years to broaden and deepen our capabilities to help customers improve their top and bottom lines,' said Mahmoud Mounir, Software Director, HP Middle East.
'This relentless focus on customers has been paying off: Over the last four quarters, we have seen dramatic growth in our software business, which is a clear validation that more customers are choosing HP Software to achieve their business goals. HP Software revenue doubled over the prior-year period to $698m, led by strong growth from the businesses acquired in HP's purchase of Mercury Interactive. On a year-over-year basis, HP OpenView grew 24% excluding Mercury. Operating profit was $177m, or 25.4% of revenue, up from $60m, or 17.2% of revenue, in the prior-year period. 'According to a recent survey by industry analyst firm Gartner, Inc., the top two priorities that businesses expect IT to support are improving business processes and controlling enterprise-wide operating costs. However, many CIOs are faced with the daunting task of meeting this demand with out-dated tools that are insufficient to manage the increasingly complex IT environment caused by the proliferation and massive build out in recent years of IT infrastructure - servers, network devices, storage arrays, clients and software.
Re-defining IT operationsHP Software's Automated Operations Suite is an integrated set of products that helps customers improve their business processes and significantly reduce operating costs by: 1) automating the processes of IT, 2) automating service deployment, change and compliance and 3) monitoring and managing business services. The suite is composed of: • HP's IT Service Management (ITSM) solution, which delivers industry-leading service lifecycle management processes to define, deliver, and manage business services from inception to retirement. By incorporating Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) v3 best practices and providing metrics for continuous process improvement, it helps companies optimize the business outcomes from their business services. • HP's Business Service Automation (BSA) solution, which creates a single platform to drive change into IT Operations across applications, servers, networks, storage and clients. This reduces the cost and risk of change and provides comprehensive audit and compliance capabilities. • HP's Business Service Management (BSM) solution, which combines industry-leading application, infrastructure and network management software to help customers monitor and manage business services to mitigate business risk and reduce the potential costs of service downtime. It does this by linking infrastructure performance to end-user monitoring.
New Business Service Automation SolutionHP's new Business Service Automation solution incorporates key data center automation technologies from the acquisition of Opsware and HP's client automation and storage automation capabilities. With this new solution, IT organizations can: • Automate infrastructure operations across client, applications, physical and virtual servers, networks, storage, and software to free up scarce IT staff resources to focus on strategic and innovative initiatives to help drive growth for the business; • Orchestrate processes across systems and teams with integrated process workflows delivered through HP's Operations Orchestration software, which provides clear visibility into processes that impact financial reporting, security and other governance concerns; and • Record and manage all configuration updates and change activity to infrastructure and applications for complete service compliance. Products in HP's new BSA solution that are now available include HP Server Automation 7.0, HP Network Automation 7.0, HP Operations Orchestration 7.0, HP Service Automation Visualizer 7.0, HP Service Automation Reporter 7.0, HP Live Network 7.0 and HP Application Storage Automation 1.0, which is bundled with HP Storage Essentials 6.0 to form HP's new Storage Automation solution. 'Business service automation is an opportunity for IT organization to more closely align with business objectives such as compliance, security, cost reduction, and the delivery of innovative products,' said Stephen Elliot, research director, Enterprise Management Service, IDC. 'The legacy manner in which many IT organization execute enterprise infrastructure management processes are quickly becoming obsolete as they are too static, take too long to execute, and lengthen time to market cycles. IT organizations must mature towards processes and technologies that enable a more dynamic, business driven impact.' Comprehensive IT Service Management Solution HP's ITSM solution helps IT organizations continually monitor, measure and improve their business value while increasing the efficiency of IT service delivery. The solution includes new HP Operational Management services and ITSM training and assessment services as well as major enhancements to: • HP Service Manager 7.0 - enables automated service lifecycle management to track and manage business services to help deliver higher quality services to the business at a lower cost. With HP Service Manager 7.0, business services can be managed from a user perspective and problem detection and resolution can be accelerated through integrations with HP Quality Center as well as HP Universal CMDB and HP BSM solutions. HP Service Manager 7.0 is also offered through Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) where customer can use this software 'on demand' over the Internet and accelerate the use and benefit from the software; and • HP Decision Center 2.0 - helps IT staff manage and improve the quality of service delivery and provide the necessary visibility to help IT organizations make informed decisions and take action to improve business processes and minimize negative business impact. In addition to new enhancements to HP's IT Service Management software, HP is also offering new services to help customers quickly unlock the value of the software. New services include the following: • HP Blueprint and Training for Service Manager 7.0 - provides best practices for standardizing and automating processes to accelerate deployment of ITIL V3 and implementation of HP Service Manager. These services help customers improve the efficiency and quality of IT operations, ensure they meet regulatory reporting requirements, and reduce operational risk; and • HP IT Service Management Assessment Services - helps customers continually improve the quality of service management skills and processes. With enhancements that include the new ITIL v3 processes, this new service helps improve productivity and reduce reactive process changes, which in turn will free up IT staff to focus more on strategic projects that support business growth. 'To meet the ambitious growth plans, demands from the business, and aggressive service-level agreements of our new division at Barclays Wealth, we had to quickly build a single service management function from seven highly dispersed legacy groups with a focus on activities that would have a material impact on service quality,' said Jason K. Scott-Taggart, director, head of Service Support, Barclays Wealth Technology. 'HP's IT Service Management solution helped facilitate the aggressive delivery of the first phase of this project to transform our operation.'

iPhone Dev Team considers open sourcing AnySIM unlock software

2007-12-03T10:57:00.000-08:00

Alright, we give up: we just can't find enough spare change in the Ars lounge couches to score even one unlocked iPhone from Germany's T-Mobile or France's Orange. Fortunately, we can probably blow the few bucks we did find on that leather iPhone case we've been eyeing: the iPhone Dev Team is kicking around the possibility of open-sourcing AnySIM, its free unlocking iPhone software.

Citing the power of community and a hope for keeping AnySIM updates in step with iPhone firmware releases, Gizmodo says that the core of the team is hip to the move. Now it's just a matter of getting community approval through a poll in the Hackintosh forums. On the one hand, more developers who can help update AnySIM can speed up release times, but on the other, sensitive software like this could go south if the community's patches aren't up to snuff. Decisions, decisions.

That said, the poll currently sits with a 60 percent vote in favor of setting AnySIM free. Considering that the only real alternative is the commercial iPhoneSIMFree product, which has typically been first to ship updates for new iPhone firmware, open sourcing AnySIM could be the key to getting free updates out as fast as possible. We only hope that users continue (or start) to donate to the project for all of its developers' hard work.

The Microsoft Robot Is At Your Command

2007-12-01T00:35:00.000-08:00

So...normally on Friday, we run reader feedback. But since we haven't had any reader feedback since before Thanksgiving (Thursday of last week, for those of you outside the U.S.), we're going to keep this Friday issue of RCPU fairly short and hopefully somewhat sweet. Don't let us down during this festive season, though -- an e-mail to RCPU (at lpender@rcpmag.com) is the gift that we'll give right back to you in this space next week.

Anyway, we had to smile today at a story out of Japan, where a company called ZMP has developed a two-legged robot that runs on Microsoft robotics software. Now, there's an unfathomable number of jokes we could make about crashes, security flaws and maybe even how the Microsoft robot keeps accusing the Linux robot of stealing all its best tricks, but we'd rather turn the floor over to you.

We'd like to know what you would want your Microsoft robot to do. It can be anything, really -- well, anything fit to print in a family-friendly newsletter, we suppose. Would you want it to get you a cold beverage during the game? Actually figure out licensing terms for virtualization technologies? Develop a coherent SaaS strategy? Redesign the partner program Web site?
The Microsoft robot is at your command. Send your instructions to lpender@rcpmag.com.

MI5 warns firms of Chinese spying

2007-12-01T00:22:00.000-08:00

The director-general of MI5 has warned business leaders that China has been carrying out state sponsored espionage against vital parts of Britain's economy, including the computer systems of big banks and financial services firms.

Jonathan Evans sent a confidential letter to 300 executives and security chiefs at banks, accountants and legal firms this week warning them that they were under attack from "Chinese state organisations", according to Saturday's The Times.

It is believed to be the first time the Government has directly accused China of involvement in web-based espionage, the newspaper said.

A security expert told the newspaper that among the techniques used by Chinese groups were "custom trojans", software designed to hack into the network of a particular firm and feed back confidential data.

The letter includes a list of "signatures" that can be used to identify Chinese trojans and a list of internet addresses that have been used to launch attacks.

France Telecom's Orange CEO targets 50,000-100,000 iPhone sales by year-end

2007-11-28T00:16:00.001-08:00

PARIS, Nov. 28, 2007 (Thomson Financial delivered by Newstex) -- Didier Lombard, CEO of France Telecom's (NYSE:FTE) Orange unit is targetting sales of between 50,000 and 100,000 Apple iPhones by the end of the year.Orange is exclusive operator in France for the multimedia iPhone, which is launched today.Lombard said he and Apple CEO Steve Jobs had preliminary discussions about the iPhone two and half years ago, before it had been made.'At the time, we were already agreed on the principle that it would be Orange that would distribute it in France,' Lombard said.Copyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News.

Ultra Smart F700 set to launch in Jan/Feb 2008

2007-11-28T00:01:00.000-08:00

In Malaysia that is. According to a Samsung representative, the Peninsula is the only definite country in Southeast Asia for now that will get the F700 come early next year. The phone is currently available in Germany and the UK, while plans to introduce the touchscreen HSDPA handset elsewhere in Asia Pacific are still pending confirmation. We had a brief hands-on with a production unit and found ourselves liking the haptic feedback when we were using the touch panel. Sliding out the QWERTY keyboard, which was aided by a spring-loaded mechanism, was also very smooth and solid. Adding a dash of style were the square keys with rounded borders that resembled those on the Apple MacBooks. Our only gripe with the unit was with the glossy surface that tended to pick up fingerprints fairly easily. We'll be back with a more in-depth preview of the handset. And we'll update on availability once we get the information. For now, here are two shots of the F700 in the wild.

Shuttle line aims to boost tourism

2007-11-28T00:00:00.000-08:00

Just four miles - a straight shot down Glendale Avenue - separates the city's historic downtown from the buzz permeating the city's sports and entertainment district.Yet some downtown businesses owners say they have limited success luring game day visitors to their quaint shops and restaurants.That could change with the Glendale Express, a shuttle that next month begins to transport people between the two areas and will introduce visitors to downtown gems such as the Bead Museum, a working chocolate factory and historic Catlin Court.

"It's going to bridge the four-mile gap," said Lorraine Pino, director of the Glendale Visitors Center. The city is contracting with Glendale-based ValuTrans for a six-month pilot project to provide the free service six days a week. The city will pay $70,000, which works out to $55.37 an hour and covers the cost of the bus, driver, mileage and maintenance, according to city spokeswoman Jennifer Reichelt. Downtown business owners have advocated for such a link since plans were first hatched to build Jobing.com Arena, which opened in 2003. "I'm all for anyone bringing customers my way," said Karen Landes, who owns the Apple Tree shop on Glendale Avenue and is president of the Glendale Downtown Development Corporation. Landes said she has seen some increase in foot traffic since the sports and entertainment district was launched. But most of the visitors stumble onto downtown rather than being drawn by a clear marketing strategy, she added.Landes knows many visitors to the NHL arena and NFL dome are here with sports, not shopping, on their minds. But during larger events when visitors stay longer, she is hoping they will look for more, such as the furniture and folk art sold at her shop."Once you've seen Cabela's and had a few beers, some people want something else to do," Landes said.Paul Seabrook, who opened the Glendale Gaslight Inn with his wife two years ago, also has high hopes for what he calls the shuttle's "proactive outreach.""It will allow people to move around without cars to explore more areas," Seabrook said.And over at the Bead Museum, board Chairman Susan Flint said the museum expects the shuttle to drive traffic just as downtown festivals often encourage visitors to frequent the museum.

A well-polished iPod

2007-11-27T23:59:00.000-08:00

Of the more than 100 million iPods Apple Inc. has sold, not one of them has been as polished and unblemished as the new iPod nano.
Nicknamed ‘Fat Boy’ when photos of the device were leaked online a few weeks before its Sept. 5 release, the third generation nano is anything but chubby. Sure, it’s shorter and wider than previous nanos, but it remains so skinny owners may be tempted to crack it open to see how so much is crammed inside so small a package.
Apple is at its best when product updates give customers more features and capacity without a bump in price. Scoring big points on both of these fronts, this is the best update in the nearly six-year history of the world’s favorite digital music device. With the same pricing but double the capacity, the new nano is available in 4 GB ($149) and 8 GB ($199) sizes.
The smaller capacity is available in silver only, while the larger capacity adds color choices of black, light green, light blue and red. The faceplate remains anodized metal, however the back is now the shiny chrome surface — the one that saves more fingerprints than the FBI - found on larger iPods.
In the past, nano owners had to give up some benefits found in bigger iPod in order to get the advantages of the smaller size. The nano was perfect to exercise with — thanks to the nano-only Nike+ Sport Kit — but video capabilities and games were out of the question.
Not anymore.
The new nano’s squat physique is necessary because videos just wouldn’t look good on the 1.5-inch screen of the older nanos. To make room for a 2-inch diagonal screen, Apple needed to make the nano wider, but that freed up space to make it shorter at the same time. The new model is 2 inches wide, 2.75 inches tall and a ￦#189;¦#188;-inch thick..
Apple did not stop with a larger screen. It also packed more pixels per inch into the display than is found on any of its older iPod or iPhone screens. Designers also made the screen 65-percent brighter than the previous nano.
The result is crystal clear video, games and menus. But is the screen large enough? The answer may have to do more with your age and eyesight than anything else. My 40-something eyes found it a tad small for movie-length viewing but just fine for watching the pilot of Fox’s ‘Back to You,’a free download on iTunes.
The new nano also boasts a vastly improved user interface. When browsing through music, video and photo menus, a split screen shows the text options on one half while preview art floats around on the other half. Users can also opt to browse through their collections in the Cover Flow mode, which displays cover art like a jukebox window. While Cover Flow works beautifully on the iPhone with artwork flipping by with a quick drag of a finger across the screen, the function is controlled by the Click Wheel on the nano. The covers flip through in a jumpy fashion, but it is still an interesting way to look for items.
The slightly herky-jerky Cover Flow performance is the only clunky item in this package. (I’ll skip the usual stinging critique of the included iPod headphones because I have yet to meet someone who actually uses them). What is easy to overlook is the stunning ease of buying, loading and playing content purchased via iTunes. For those who have been enjoying this simple process for years and no longer appreciate it, try putting your iPod away for a month and living with a competitor’s model. Even SanDisk’s latest Sansas - which rate second in my book in terms of ease of use - seem a bit complicated alongside the iTunes/iPod juggernaut.
For a minute or two I thought iTunes had failed when I tried to load EA Sport’s Mini Golf, a game I downloaded last year for my 5th generation iPod. Turns out that games purchased before this month will not work with the new nano and iPod Classic. Instead of offering an updated version for free to those who have purchased original versions, Apple requires owners of the new iPods to buy the game again.
Since I played the golf game a total of three times during the past year, I opted to play Vortex, one of three games that ship with the nano. As with the larger iPods, the games work, but the gaming experience is not a selling point in my book.
The new BostonHerald.com rating system for technology reviews — we used a four-star system up until two weeks ago — allows for letter grades ranging from F to A+. The nano was within one issue of earning the top grade, however the inability to use most Made for iPod video docks and video displays manufactured before August is annoying.
Apple has blocked the output of video to any device that does not have an authentication chip. While the chip is Apple’s method of protecting customers from unauthorized and perhaps iPod-damaging accessories — and making a few extra bucks on the chip — it renders such accessories as DLO HomeDock Deluxe and Altec Lansing’s IMV712 as nothing more than audio devices when connected to the new iPods.
Apple says it is working with third-party vendors to avoid any issues on future video accessories, but if you recently purchased a dock or video player that you like, you might want to consider holding off on the purchase of a new iPod.

Objective Decision’s Contactizer 3.5.2 is published

2007-11-27T23:56:00.000-08:00

Objective Decision the makers of the contact / project management software Contactizer, today announced the latest release of its software version 3.5.2. With this release, Contactizer 3.5.2 mainly improves it compatibility with the new Apple OS, Leopard. Contactizer 3.5.2 delivers a dozen of issue fixes or enhanced features and is highly recommended for all Contactizer users.
Objective Decision the makers of the contact / project management software Contactizer, today announced the latest release of its software version 3.5.2.
With this release, Contactizer 3.5.2 mainly improves it compatibility with the new Apple OS, Leopard. Contactizer 3.5.2 delivers a dozen of issue fixes or enhanced features and is highly recommended for all Contactizer users.
The biggest new feature of Contactizer 3.5 is the addition of a powerful Project Manager. With 50+ new exciting features and enhancements, Contactizer Pro 3.5 is the most impressive Contactizer version yet. From the introduction of the Data Picker Panel to the capability to manage Projects directly from the Task Manager, Contactizer 3.5 becomes the control center of your daily work.
Contactizer 3.5 is available for free as a download to all Contactizer 3 users. Current Contactizer users will discover an improved overall interface, with the possibility to access tasks from the calendar view or the addition of a Merge Key Panel.
Objective Decision also starts shipping Contactizer Express 3.5. This new application is built on the same core as the Pro version. Contactizer is designed for freelancers, small individual businesses and entrepreneurs that need to access contact information, organize and prioritize tasks, and track all projects and resources.
Contactizer Express or Pro 3.5 can be tested for free by downloading the demo version. Contactizer Pro retails for EUR 99 (USD 119); quantity discounts and educational pricing are available. For more information please contact the Objective Decision sales team.
Objective Decision main website: http://http//objective-decision.comObjective Decision Products: http://http//objective-decision.com/en/products/Download Contactizer Pro 3.5.2: http://www.gumitech.com/download/Contactizer%20Pro.dmgHow to buy ?: http://http//objective-decision.com/en/store/Contactizer Pro Project Module: http://objective-decision.com/rsrc/tour/DefaultDesktop_project.jpgContactizer Pro Event Module: http://objective-decision.com/rsrc/tour/DefaultDesktop_events.jpg
Objective Decision LLC is a Miami based company. Since 2004, Objective Decision offers leading business management software that serve the needs and challenges of more than 20 000 business customers. Objective Decision’s main goal is to create outstanding software combining OS X’s “State-of-the-Art” technology with the strength of dedicated tools for small businesses on the Mac platform.

Give online life to desktop documents

2007-11-24T13:36:00.000-08:00

Bangalore: You have a desktop or laptop PC, with a connection to the Internet. You still use earlier versions of Microsoft’s Office tools such as the word processor Word, the presentation tool Powerpoint and the spread sheet Excel. You have not upgraded to the latest — 2007 — versions of MS Office. May be you could no longer afford to do so.

Thirty Indian engineers based in Bangalore have created a suite of online productivity tools that enables such users to enjoy the look, feel and much of the functionality of the newest edition of the three main Microsoft Office tools by downloading for free, a 5-megabyte chunk of software. What’s more, they can work on their files, from any machine anywhere by accessing them from a 100 megabyte storage space that is provided to them on the Web; they can switch seamlessly from desktop to Web and back; they can share their files from chosen friends or colleagues; they can collaborate on a single document, deciding who can share what, and exchanging comments live through text pop-pops... all this on any platform, Windows, Linux, Unix or whatever.

The application is called Live Documents. It was unveiled a few days ago to a lot of global interest and critical scrutiny. It is the work of the Bangalore-based InstaColl, a wholly Indian Internet-driven company whose Chairman and inspiration is Sabeer Bhatia, the man who co-developed Hotmail, the world’s first Web-based e-mail service, which he subsequently sold to Microsoft.

While the ability to use Live Documents is free for individual users (You can apply for an invitation to join at www.live-documents.com but due to the huge number of requests in the last few days, the company is having to beef up its infrastructure and it might take 3-4 weeks to receive your authorisation.)

Early access

The Hindu received an early access to Live Documents and was able to put it through its paces. In appearance and feel the Powerpoint and Excel screens are identical to Microsoft’s Office 2007, while the Word screen is a halfway house between the 2003 and 2007 versions. Instacoll’s chief executive Sumanth Raghavendra, who led the Live Documents development says this was done deliberately since so many users are very familiar and comfortable with the earlier version. For the same reason the creators chose to work with the look of the ‘Trishul’ of Microsoft’s Office tools because PC users were used to them.

While the Live Documents application might resemble a few other browser-based office tools such as Google Docs, it goes further by completely blurring the boundary between online and offline, between PC and Web.

“We are very excited to be offering Live Documents. We think this is the way to the future,” said Mr. Bhatia, in a special telephonic briefing for The Hindu, “the ability to collaborate on a document, synchronise it and track it via live chat is something that has not been possible with Office suites before. This is an Office tool for Internet Age.”

While free to lay users, Live Documents is being offered as a Web-desktop collaboration tool for corporates, at a small price per user. This also explains the name of the parent company, InstaColl — an abbreviation of Instant Collaboration

Zune 80 Sold Out

2007-11-24T13:31:00.000-08:00

Planning on buying a Zune 80 for the holidays? Good luck. It was supposed to be the hot product for the Christmas season, but after only one week at leading retailers inclucing Amazon, Best Buy, Target and Walmart it is sold out or in limited supply.

This leaves the door wide open for the iPod Classic, its biggest competitor. Unless you want to spend $320 or so on Ebay for one. It reminds me of the $5 Beanie Babies that in the late 90’s were all the rage. Stores would sell out immediately, and people would have to buy them on ebay for much higher prices.

“People are really frustrated trying to get one of these,” says Albert Wang, 31, of Salt Lake City, who unsuccessfully tried to buy a Zune 80 in his local Best Buy.

Retailers are frustrated, too. “We’ve seen a constrained supply,” says Brian Lucas, spokesman for Best Buy. “It does seem to have an appeal as an iPod alternative.” Says Amazon spokeswoman Anya Waring: “It came out of the gate as a really popular item.”

Microsoft concentrated on the 4 GB and 8 GB flash based Zunes, which left the Zune 80 in short supply. Apple is not worried, as they feel that the Zune will take market share from other companies, but won’t touch Apple.

Still, there are people who have been holding out for an iPod alternative who are willing to wait a bit longer, says Chris Leckness, who runs Gotzune.com, a Zune enthusiast site. “Many people are not buying into the idea you have to buy an iPod to be cool,” he says.

Asus Eee PC is King of Laptops

2007-11-24T13:29:00.000-08:00

Microsoft’s Zune may be the king of Black Friday sale on the portable media player category, but Asus is absolutely rocking the laptop category.
In places such as Taiwan, US and Hong Kong, Asus Eee PC is sold out as soon as it appears on the market. California’s 4th largest school district – the Fresno Unified School District, have purchased 1,300 Eee PCs from ASUS to use as training aids for both students and teachers.
It’s the number one gadget on most wish list of Americans this Christmas. “In the two weeks since it´s launch in the US, the Eee PC has already sold ten thousand sets,” said Sunny Han, Director of ASUS Global Brand Center. Sales projection for this year is 350,000 Asus Eee PC units is likely to be met. In the next year 3 to 5 million Eee PCs will be sold.

Windows XP(SP3) runs Microsoft Corp.'s Office suite 10% faster than XP SP2

2007-11-24T13:25:00.000-08:00

Windows XP(SP3), the update scheduled to release next year, runs Microsoft Corp.'s Office suite 10% faster than XP SP2, a performance testing software developer reported Friday.

Devil Mountain Software, which earlier in the week claimed Windows Vista SP1 was no faster than the original, repeated some of the same tests on the release candidate of Windows XP SP3, the service pack recently issued to about 15,000 testers.

"We were pleasantly surprised to discover that Windows XP SP3 delivers a measurable performance boost to this aging desktop OS," said Craig Barth, Devil Mountain's chief technology officer, in a post to a company blog Friday.

Devil Mountain ran its OfficeBench suite of performance benchmarks on a laptop equipped with Office 2007, Microsoft's latest application suite. The notebook -- the same unit used in the Vista/Vista SP1 tests earlier -- featured a 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 1GB of memory. The results reported a 10% speed increase under XP SP3 when compared to SP2, the service pack released in 2004.

"Since SP3 was supposed to be mostly a bug-fix/patch consolidation release, the unexpected speed boost comes as a nice bonus," Barth said. "In fact, XP SP3 is shaping up to be a 'must-have' update for the majority of users who are still running Redmond's not-so-latest and greatest desktop OS."

According to the Office performance benchmarks, Windows XP SP3 is also considerably faster than Vista SP1. "None of this bodes well for Vista, which is now more than two times slower than the most current builds of its older sibling," said Barth.

While Microsoft was not available for comment over the weekend about XP's performance, it defended Vista SP1 after Devil Mountain's first round of tests. "We appreciate the excitement to evaluate Windows Vista SP1 as soon as possible. However, the service pack is still in the development phase and will undergo several changes before being released," a spokeswoman said in an e-mail.

Microsoft has at times struggled to wean users from the six-year-old Windows XP and get them to migrate to Vista. During 2007, for example, it made several XP concessions, including adding five years to the support lifespan of the Home edition and extending OEM and retail sales of XP through June 2008, as it recognized that customers wanted to hold on to the older OS.

Recently, Forrester Research said that XP remained Vista's biggest rival, and cited survey data that showed American and European businesses would delay Vista deployment, in part because of application incompatibility issues with the new OS. "That's causing a lot of XP shops to take a wait-and-see approach to Vista," said Forrester analyst Benjamin Gray two weeks ago.

One Laptop Per Child: An idea whose time has come, just not for Negroponte

2007-11-24T13:00:00.000-08:00

Nicholas Negroponte had the best of intentions. Unfortunately, when those intentions clash with the profit motives of private vendors, private industry has become quite aggressive, as the Wall Street Journal reports. The One Laptop Per Child project has sold nowhere near its stated goal of 150 million laptops shipped by the end of 2008.

As is often the case, the person with the idea is not necessarily the right person to capitalize on it:

Mr. Negroponte's ambitious plan has been derailed, in part, by the power of his idea. For-profit companies threatened by the projected $100 price tag set off at a sprint to develop their own dirt-cheap machines, plunging Mr. Negroponte into unexpected competition against well-known brands such as Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system.

A version of Mr. Negroponte's vision is starting to come true. Impoverished countries are indeed snapping up cheap laptops for their schoolchildren -- just not anywhere near as many of his as he expected. They now have several cut-price models to choose from, raising the possibility that One Laptop Per Child, or OLPC, will end up as a niche player. Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child project sought to get $100 laptops into the hands of millions of the world's poorest schoolchildren. But for-profit versions of the laptop are competing fiercely in the developing world.

"I'm not good at selling laptops," Mr. Negroponte has told colleagues. "I'm good at selling ideas."
The good news, of course, is that developing nations win as competition ramps up, even if One Laptop Per Child isn't the organization ultimately selling the laptops.

The bad news, however, will be if these vendors use their cheap laptops to entrench themselves in developing markets, such that choice is dampened for decades. This is where open source needs to flex its political clout and stress that price is not the only consideration for countries looking to adopt technology for their children. Freedom should also be a critical factor. This means open source.

Hotmail Founder Launches Online Office Suite

2007-11-24T12:58:00.000-08:00

Entrepreneur Sabeer Bhatia, a co-founder of Hotmail, has announced that Instant Collaboration Software Technologies (InstaColl), a Bangalore company which he co-founded, launched Live Documents, an online service which provides similar functionality to that of Microsoft Office.

The Flash-based applications suite viewed via an Internet browser is just one of the means to use Live Documents. The product can also integrate within your existing Microsoft Office installation, adding online collaboration capabilities.

"We are just a few years away from the end of the shrink-wrapped software business. By 2010, people will not be buying software. This is a significant challenge to a proportion of Microsoft’s revenues," Bhatia said.

Apparently, Bhatia's suite is somewhere in between Microsoft's desktop-based suite and Google's online suite. "Even power-users of Microsoft Office can use our service," Bhatia said.

"From a technology and utility perspective, Live Documents offers two valuable improvements - firstly, it break's Microsoft's proprietary format lock-in and builds a bridge with other document standards such as Open Office and secondly, our solution matches features found only in the latest version of Office (Office 2007) such as macros, table styles and databar conditional formatting in Excel 2007 and live preview of changes in PowerPoint 2007. Thus, Live Documents lets consumers and businesses to derive the benefits of Office 2007 without having to upgrade," said Adarsh Kini, Chief Technology Officer at InstaColl.

However, Zoho, a similar suite, also has their own plugins for the desktop Office. Google will not wait for long before launching their own stuff. It's hard to say how this competition will turn out, but it's quite certain that the way users handle documents will soon change. In the end, the users are always better off when there are different solutions battling it out for their money.

Sabeer Bhatia, a Stanford graduate, joined Apple where he met Jack Smith. The two colleagues came up with the concept of a web-based database entitled Javasoft. Eventually, they decided to create HoTMaiL (the uppercase letters spelling out HTML - the language used to write the base of a webpage). The service was launched on July 4, 1996 and in less than six months, the website attracted over 1 million subscribers. Hotmail was sold to Microsoft in 1997 for a reported sum of $400 million.

Leopard Mail Called Security Risk

2007-11-24T12:51:00.000-08:00

Mac users with Leopard installed are being warned of the resurgence of a security flaw in Apple Mail.

The flaw was earlier patched for Mac OS X 10.4 in a software update that was released last year, but has reportedly returned in the current iteration of the email application.

Heise Security reports the flaw, which could let malicious attackers disguise malicious software as benign file attachments, was left open in Apple's new OS.

"Files on a Mac can contain additional information, such how another program should be used to open them. The operating system stores these in the file system in a so-called "resource fork", which is linked to the file. This type of information is usually limited to the local system; however, for emails the MIME format AppleDouble allows resource forks to be attached - these are automatically analyzed by Apple Mail," the security researchers explain.

The original flaw was caused by limitations in the Download Validation feature that warns an email user if a message is safe to open. Researchers found that they could attach malicious code to otherwise benign files, such as JPEG's. When an file with such malicious code crafted to it was opened, the hidden code would be initiated.

"In tests performed by Heise Security, the Terminal window opened directly in most cases when the attachment to the email check test email was opened," Heise said, though test results were inconsistent - while some maliciously-coded attachments triggered a warning, others failed to do so.

Wireless communications leave much to be desired

2007-11-24T12:46:00.000-08:00

On the surface, the mobile Web is a happening place. There's the iPhone in all its glory. More than 30 companies have signed up for the Open Handset Alliance from Google, which aims to bring the wide-open development environment of the Internet to mobile devices.

Nokia, which owns nearly 40 percent of the world market for cellphones, is snapping up Web technology companies and has made an eye-popping US$8.1 billion bid for Navteq, a digital mapping service. There are also the requisite start-ups chasing the market.

It all looks good, but the wireless communications business smacks of a soap opera, with disaster lurking like your next dropped call.

In 2000, the wireless application protocol was supposed to bring the Internet to the cellphone. Our hero turned out to be a flash in the pan.

That was attributed to a lack of high-speed cellular data networks, so a frenzied and costly effort to build third-generation, or 3G, networks ensued. But at a recent conference, 3G was called "a failure" by Caroline Gabriel, an analyst at Rethink Research. She said data would make up only 12 percent of average revenue per user this year, far below the expected 50 percent. (The 12 percent figure does not include text messaging, but you don't need a 3G network to send a text message.)

Similarly, surveys by Yankee Group, a Boston research firm, show that only 13 percent of cell phone users in North America use their phones to surf the Web more than once a month, while 70 percent of computer users view Web sites every day.

"The user experience has been a disaster," says Tony Davis, managing partner of Brightspark, a Toronto venture capital firm that has invested in two mobile Web companies.

challenge

While many phones have some form of Web access, most are hard to use -- just finding a place to type in a Web address can be a challenge. And once you find it, most Web content doesn't look very good on cell phone screens. Even the iPhone's browser can disappoint. It has a version of the Apple Safari browser that doesn't support Flash, a programming language widely used on Web sites, so users are limited in what they can see on the Web.

And, you pay a lot to experience the pain of surfing the mobile Web. Lewis Ward, an analyst at the International Data Corp, compares the mobile Web today to AOL before it went with flat-rate pricing in the early 1990s. Most people surf on a pay-per-kilobyte model, which encourages them to surf as fast as they can, he says.

The carriers, however, seem to be having a change of heart about the mobile Web. AT&T has allowed Apple unusual control over the network in the iPhone, and Sprint and T-Mobile have signed on to the Android development platform of the Open Handset Alliance.

Industry watchers think that having started, the mobile Web will inexorably open over the next five years, solving many problems.

For instance, there's the challenge of finding things on the Web from a mobile phone. John SanGiovanni, founder and vice president for products and services at Zumobi, which was spun out of Microsoft Research, says his company hopes to make it easier for phone users to find phone-ready versions of sites they want.

test version

On Dec. 14, it plans to introduce the beta, or test, version of its slick-looking software. It will include colorful "tiles" that phone users can "zoom" into and out of quickly as they move from site to site.

Other approaches to solving problems with mobile browsing include Yahoo Go, a mobile Internet product certified to display Web pages correctly on more than 300 handsets, and another from InfoGIN, an Israeli company whose product automatically adapts Web pages to work on cellphones.

The plot has plenty of time to twist yet again. Nathan Eagle an MIT researcher, is working on mobile phone programming in Kenya, where he's teaching computer science students how to build mobile Web applications that don't use a browser. Instead, they rely on voice commands and speech-to-text translation to surf the Web.

"People talk about the mobile Web, and it's just assumed that it'll be a replica of the desktop experience," Eagle said. "But they're fundamentally different devices."

He says he thinks that the basic Web experience for most of the world's 3 billion cellphones will never involve trying to thumb-type Web addresses or squint at e-mail messages. Instead, he says, it will be voice-driven.

"People want to use their phone as a phone," he says.

Awarded Int’l Green Apple Environmental Award

2007-11-24T12:39:00.000-08:00

Padmakantha Wanduragala won a ‘Silver’ award for his research on an environment friendly fertilizer, while reading for his Ph.D.

Director of the Post-Graduate Institute of Agriculture Professor Athula Perera announced at the 19th Congress of the institute held at the Plant Genetic Resource Centre, Gannoruwa, that Mr. Wanduragala, a student attached to the institute had won the prestigious ‘International Green Apple Environmental Award’.

The presentation was made at a ceremony at the House of Commons in London on November 9. The Silver Award was for screening an environmentally friendly bio fertilizer for rice cultivation in Sri Lanka. Mr. Wanduragala is an old boy of Maliyadeva College, Kurunegala and the son of Mr. Felix Wanduragala and the late Mrs. Muriel Wanduragala of Kurunegala.

Minister for popularizing green house technology to boost agri-production

2007-11-24T12:36:00.000-08:00

Minister for Horticulture, Tourism, PHE and Irrigation Muhammad Dilawar Mir has called for wide spread introduction of polygreen house technology to give boost to horticulture production on scientific lines.
Reviewing progress on implementation of ongoing Rs 1.00 crore technology mission at a high level meeting held here last evening, the Minister said that polygreen technology has emerged as one of the most low cost technology for bulk production of quality plant materials and off-season vegetables and low volume-high value crops in the most advanced countries adding that need of the hour was to introduce this technology in the state and bring green revolution. He also urged for encouraging cultivation of aromatic and medicinal plants demanded forest areas as alternate source of livelihood to the people.
This would go a long way in conserving and protecting green wealth besides improving and transforming socio-economic profile of the people as cultivation of aromatic and herbal plants is emerging as the most profitable export oriented business activity in the world.
Financial Commissioner Agriculture Production, S. S. Sahini, Director Horticulture, Planning and Marketing Showkat Ahmad Zargar, Director Horticulture Kashmir N.A. Wani, Director Horticulture Jammu M.S.Qasba, Managing Director JKHPMC, B. A. Banday and concerned officers were present in the meeting.
The meeting also reviewed pace on Market Intervention Scheme MIS. It was informed that about 13000 Mts of apples from Kashmir, about 173 mts of sandy Pear have been procured from the fruit growers under MIS by the end of October this year.

Bush Ally Defeated in Australia

2007-11-24T12:30:00.000-08:00

SYDNEY, Australia, Nov. 24 — Australia’s prime minister, John Howard, one of President Bush’s staunchest allies in Asia, suffered a comprehensive defeat at the hands of the electorate on Saturday, as his Liberal Party-led coalition lost its majority in Parliament.

He will be replaced by Kevin Rudd, the Labor Party leader and a former diplomat. “Today Australia looks to the future,” Mr. Rudd told a cheering crowd in his home state of Queensland. “Today the Australian people have decided that we as a nation will move forward.”

Mr. Howard’s defeat, after 11 years in power, follows that of José María Aznar of Spain, who also backed the United States-led invasion of Iraq, and political setbacks for Tony Blair of Britain.
Mr. Howard conceded nearly two hours after the last polling booths closed in the west of the country.

“A few moments ago I telephoned Mr. Kevin Rudd and I congratulated him and the Australian Labor Party on a very emphatic victory,” Mr. Howard told a roomful of emotional supporters.
“I leave the office of prime minister with our country prouder, stronger and more prosperous than ever,” he said.

Returns for a small number of seats are yet to be compiled, but analysts estimate that over all the Labor Party gained 28 seats to win a comfortable 22-seat majority in the 150-seat lower house of Parliament, where governments are formed. Official results are expected within the next day or two.

Mr. Howard may suffer the indignity of losing his own seat of Bennelong on Sydney’s north shore, which he has held for 33 years, to a former television anchor and rookie politician. He would be the first sitting prime minister to lose his seat since 1929.

It was a bruising campaign, and the Liberal Party has said it will challenge some results on the grounds that the Labor candidates had broken electoral law by failing to resign from government jobs before running for office. The Labor Party said it had broken no laws.

Mr. Rudd, 50, campaigned on a platform of new leadership to address broad concerns about the environment, health and education. He has said his first acts as prime minister would include pushing for the ratification of the Kyoto agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and negotiating the withdrawal of Australia’s 500 troops from Iraq.

Analysts said the leadership change was unlikely to bring a radically new foreign policy, although they expected a shift in emphasis in the relationship with the United States, Australia’s closest ally. “Australia will remain a close ally of the United States, and Rudd remains committed to the alliance,” said Michael Fullilove, of the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney. But he noted that “if there is a Democratic administration elected next year, to some extent they would become closer.”

Mr. Howard has a strong personal relationship with Mr. Bush that is based on a similar socially conservative philosophy and a shared outlook on terrorism.

Australian opinion polls have shown that although Australians remain strong supporters of the so-called Anzus alliance — the security pact among Australia, New Zealand and the United States — they do not approve of Mr. Bush or the Iraq war.

The attempts by Mr. Howard’s coalition to stress its economic record apparently failed to impress voters. The Australian economy has had 17 years of continuous growth, lately driven by Chinese demand for Australian iron ore and coal. Mr. Howard had warned voters that a Labor victory would endanger the country’s prosperity.

But despite the coalition campaign, there was little distance between the parties on economic policy, and the defining characteristics came down to the personalities of the leaders. In addition, Mr. Howard was running for a historic fifth term, and many voters said they were ready for a change.

“Howard is out of touch,” said George Varvaressos, 52, who voted in eastern Sydney on Saturday morning. “It’s the arrogance of being in power for too long — he hasn’t been listening.”
If Australia’s strongest military and political alliance is with Washington, the fuel for its economy is coming from China. Mr. Fullilove says Mr. Rudd’s ability to manage the relationship among Canberra, Washington and Beijing would be crucial.

Mr. Rudd, 18 years younger than Mr. Howard, has a reputation as a cerebral student of policy, as opposed to the Liberal leader’s image of a hardened and aggressive political animal.
“He seems more personable, approachable. He doesn’t seem arrogant — yet — and I have respect for him,” said Marcelle Freiman, who voted for Mr. Rudd in eastern Sydney on Saturday.

Mr. Rudd’s dry image was altered by the news that he had visited a strip club during a trip to New York in 2003.

He was a diplomat in Beijing and speaks Mandarin. He impressed many with a fluent address to Chinese President Hu Jintao when Mr. Hu visited Australia in September.

Mr. Fullilove said Mr. Rudd’s experience regarding China is unlikely to make a significant difference to Australia’s relationship with the United States. “I would counsel against people assuming that because Kevin Rudd speaks Mandarin there would be a big rebalancing of the relationship in favor of Beijing,” he said.

Sex Said Forced on Jailed Brazil Girl

2007-11-24T01:03:00.000-08:00

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- A teenage girl was locked up on theft charges in an Amazon jail for weeks with 21 men who she said would only let her eat in return for sex, according to authorities, setting off a national scandal over the treatment of women by Brazil's justice system.
The 15-year-old said she was required to have sex with at least two inmates, police spokesman Walrimar Santos said by telephone Thursday from Belem, at the mouth of the Amazon River, where the victim was transferred after nearly a month living with male inmates.
By her account, officials did nothing _ until the story erupted in the national media and outraged Brazilians demanded her transfer.
"Throwing a 15-year-old girl into a cell with 20 men was a heinous and intolerable act," Brazilian Bar Association president Cezar Britto said in an interview. "It is a serious case of criminal negligence against women, who in Brazil continue to be victims of prejudice."
Santos said the girl was not beaten or injured. But the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, which said it had access to private testimony after her transfer from the jail, reported she was tortured with lit cigarettes on her fingers and bare feet to force her to have sex. Her cellmates cut her hair to make her look more like a boy and difficult to recognize, Estado said.
She said her only reprieve from obligatory sex was on Thursdays _ when intimate visits were allowed _ and things "calmed down," Estado reported.
Police and human rights officials said the girl was out of touch in Belem and would not speak to reporters. The Associated Press generally does not identify people who may have been victims of sexual assault.
The girl was arrested Oct. 21 on accusations of breaking and entering a house and jailed with male inmates in Abaetetuba, a city of 78,000 outside the Para state capital of Belem.
She was transferred to a jail for women in Belem on Nov. 17, although police claim they requested her transfer earlier but were ignored.
Santos said separate jails for men and women do not exist in most towns in Para _ a sprawling, largely lawless state twice the size of France.
Days after the case was divulged, the Brazilian Bar Association announced that a 23-year-old woman had been obliged to share a cell with 70 men in a police detention center in Parauapebas, in southern Para. It was not clear if she was forced to have sex.
Para Gov. Ana Julia Carepa said she was outraged by the alleged abuse at Abaetetuba. She suspended three top police officials pending an investigation and promised that the guilty parties would be "punished in exemplary fashion."

Political Crisis Deepens in Lebanon

2007-11-24T00:50:00.000-08:00

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Lebanon awoke a republic without a president Saturday amid mounting worries over a power vacuum that has intensified the nation's yearlong political turmoil.
The capital was calm and shops opened for business as usual the morning after a tumultuous day that saw President Emile Lahoud depart without a successor after announcing he was handing over security powers to the army.

Lebanese soldiers sit on armored personnel carriers as policemen pass by in Beirut, Lebanon Friday, Nov. 23, 2007. Lebanon's parliament was expected to make a last attempt to meet Friday to elect a president hours before President Emile Lahoud leaves office, but a quorum was unlikely amid widely expected opposition boycott. (AP Photo/Ahmad Omar) (Ahmad Omar - AP)

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Lahoud's final announcement saying the country is in a "state of emergency" was rejected by the rival, pro-Western Cabinet of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora.

The government rejection created fresh confusion in an already unsettled situation, which many Lebanese fear could explode into violence between supporters of Saniora's government and the pro-Syria opposition led by the Shiite militant group Hezbollah.

"Lahoud's term ends in a republic without a president," read the headline of Lebanon's leading An-Nahar newspaper. Another daily, Al-Balad, printed an empty photo frame on its front page, symbolizing the political vacuum.

The departure of Lahoud, a staunch ally of the Syrian regime during his nine years in office, was a long-sought goal of the government installed by parliament's anti-Syria majority, which has been trying to put one of its own in the presidency.

Hezbollah and other opposition groups have blocked legislators from electing a new president by boycotting ballot sessions, leaving parliament without the required quorum.

The fight has put Lebanon into dangerous, unknown territory: Both sides are locked in bitter recriminations, accusing the other of breaking the constitution, and they are nowhere near a compromise on a candidate to become head of state.

The army command refused to comment on the developments. The military, under its widely respected chief, Gen. Michel Suleiman, has sought to remain neutral in the political chaos, and Lahoud's statement did not give it political powers.

Even before the president's vague announcement, the military was in place to guard against the two sides' supporters taking the conflict to the streets. On alert for days, hundreds of soldiers stood with tanks, armored personnel carriers and jeeps in the area around the downtown parliament building as well as on roads leading into Beirut.

Lahoud stepped down when his term expired at midnight.

Before getting into his car to go, he blasted Saniora's government, calling it "illegitimate and unconstitutional. They know that, even if (President) Bush said otherwise."

Five Found Dead, Including Three Children, at Maryland Park in Thanksgiving Murder-Suicide

2007-11-23T00:16:00.000-08:00

Five people were found dead in a park Thursday night in an apparent murder-suicide, police said.

"It looks like it is a domestic-related homicide-suicide," Montgomery County Police spokeswoman Porsha Jones said.

Montgomery County Police and Maryland-National Capital Park Police were called to the park near Laytonsville around 9:20 p.m., Montgomery County police said. Four of the victims, a woman and three children, were found together at the entrance of the park.

Police would not disclose the ages of the children, two boys and a girl, but said they were not toddlers.

Officers searching the area found the body of man who had died of an apparent self-afflicted gunshot wound, police said.

The bodies were being taken to the State Medical Examiner's office for autopsies.

Authorities blocked off roads in the tiny community of Unity, about 35 miles west of Baltimore.

Sony to launch TV push for PS3

2007-11-22T09:25:00.000-08:00

Sony is set to launch a major TV push for the PlayStation 3 in a bid to win over shoppers in the crucial Christmas season battle against rivals Nintendo and Xbox.

The marketing push is critical for the PS3, which is going head to head with the Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360 at Christmas for the first time.

According to analysts at Screen Digest, almost half of annual software sales are made in the Christmas period.

The flagship TV ad, developed by TBWA/London, is set to break on British TV next month with supporting ads seeded online in advance from this week.

Sony is aiming to promote the PS3 as more than a games console - it can, for example, play films and store photos and music - with the concept of an "entertainment super computer".
The theatrical-themed ad, called "the entertainers", features a cast of characters including a magician and his assistants and an acrobat, to promote different capabilities of the PS3.

"The new campaign is designed to showcase the wealth of entertainment available on PlayStation 3," explained Alan Duncan, marketing director at Sony Computer Entertainment UK.
As well as a multi-million ad campaign for the PS3, Sony is ploughing £1m into pushing three key software titles including popular karaoke title Singstar.

The TV campaign is being supported with a digital marketing push to showcase and provide details of PS3 features.

Several of the TV ads are being shown online on PlayStation 3's official campaign website thisisliving.com, created by digital agency Kerb.

"To compete in such a competitive market it is important for Sony to get a multi-media message out there to differentiate the product from rivals," said Piers Harding-Rolls, games analyst at Screen Digest.

According to Screen Digest at the end of the third quarter the Wii was winning the console sales war, shifting 1.19m units in the UK, followed by Xbox 360 at 1.55m and the PS3 – the most recent to launch - at 450,000.

Internationally Wii has sold 11.5m consoles, Xbox 360 10.9m and PS3 4.6m.

Forecasts for 2008, expected to be a significant year for Sony with a number of major titles to be launched, put the Wii at 3.9m, Xbox 360 at 3.8m and PS3 at 3.5m in the UK.

Nuclear Agency Wants More From Iran

2007-11-22T09:21:00.000-08:00

Iran is moving forward on schedule to resolve suspicions of its past nuclear activities, but must do more before the International Atomic Energy Agency can verify other important aspects of the country’s nuclear program, Mohamed ElBaradei, the director of the United Nations nuclear agency, said today.
The agency’s 35-nation board of governors has gathered for a two-day series of meetings that will address, among other issues, an agency report circulated last week on Iran’s compliance with a plan it accepted in August to shed light on past nuclear activities.
The agency is “unable to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities,” Dr. ElBaradei told the board in his opening speech.
“The agency has not so far been able to verify some important aspects of Iran’s nuclear program,” Dr. ElBaradei said. Outstanding issues include “those relevant to the scope and nature of Iran’s centrifuge enrichment activities, as well as those relevant to alleged studies and other activities that could have military applications,” he said.
Western powers, including the United States, are highly suspicious of Iran’s determination to enrich uranium, which can be used either in nuclear power plants or to fuel a nuclear weapon.
Iran insists its program is peaceful and strictly geared toward the civilian aim of producing electricity, which is its right as a party in the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
In his address to the agency’s board, Dr. ElBaradei spoke of a “crucial” need for Iran to “restore confidence” in its nuclear program in light of its history of undeclared activity. He urged Iran to “take all the confidence-building measures called for by the Security Council, including the suspension of enrichment related activities.”
But he also praised the “good progress” made on some questions Iran had long refused to address, such as how it had obtained material to build P-1 and P-2 enrichment centrifuges from the black market.
Iran said the agency’s satisfaction on the formerly unresolved question of its centrifuges highlighted the country’s goodwill and cooperation.
“We will continue our work plan, the issue will be resolved soon and Iran has shown and will show utmost cooperation, pro-active cooperation with the I.A.E.A,” Ali Asghar Soltaniyeh, Iran’s ambassador to the agency, told reporters in Vienna after Dr. ElBaradei’s address.
Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, speaking in Tehran, repeated his country’s long-standing opposition to any suspension of its nuclear work.
“Iran is not supposed to give up its nuclear rights under pressure,” he said according to the state-run IRNA news agency. “The language of force is not effective for the Iranian nation.”
At the I.A.E.A. board meeting, Dr. ElBaradei echoed the agency’s report last week by saying that Iranian “cooperation has been reactive rather than proactive,” and that add the country’s restrictions on I.A.E.A. inspectors meant that the agency’s understanding of the full scope of Iran’s nuclear program is “diminishing.”
He encouraged cooperation so that outstanding issues might be cleared “by the end of the year.”
But Mr. Soltaniyeh said that the agency’s mention of Iran needing to be more proactive “showed that we have been proactive.”
The United States and several Western European nations have said that the report last week failed to answer many questions and that there is still grave cause for concern. They are particularly concerned with Iran’s refusal to suspend nuclear enrichment while an incentive package could be discussed.
The West, in particular the United States, is also critical of the I.A.E.A. and its director for focusing on past breaches in Iran’s long secret nuclear program, arguing that the far more important matter is to learn what is the real state of its uranium enrichment program.
Last week’s report confirmed Iran’s claim that it was operating 3,000 centrifuges — a production capacity that could put it 18 months away from producing a bomb. But the agency also found that centrifuges were operating at below capacity levels and that it had no evidence that the uranium was being enriched at bomb-grade level.
The so-called ‘five-plus-one’ countries — which include Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United States — in conjunction with the European Union, have put pressure on Iran to accept negotiations or face a third round of sanctions at the United Nations Security Council.
But the West’s attempt to coerce and cajole Iran into deal-making has been unsuccessful since 2003.
“As the anchor of regional security, Iran is ready to protect national and regional security,” Mr. Jalili told a CBS reporter on the sidelines of the conference in Tehran, according to IRNA. “World powers are now aware of Iran’s effective role in international security,” he said.
The European Union foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, is to meet Mr. Jalili, in London on Nov. 30.
Mr. Solana plans to deliver a report about the Iranian situation at the end of the month, which will be used to determine whether the ‘five plus one’ countries want to go ahead and press for more sanctions at the United Nations. The I.A.E.A. report will carry important weight in the process.
Russia and China have been reluctant to back further sanctions, and instead have encouraged Iran to give more information about its program. Western diplomats say that Russia and China’s growing economic interests in Iran are the main reason for the foot dragging.

Computer Game With a Special Special Effect, Facial Expressions

2007-11-22T07:36:00.000-08:00

Most game designers don’t worry about wrinkles. Casey Hudson does, which is one reason Mass Effect, which he spent the last three years directing, is a landmark of interactive storytelling.
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RelatedThe Trailer for Mass Effect
It is the best rebuttal yet to the notion that games are inherently inferior to linear media like television and film in their ability to envelop an audience in a world that is both fantastic and a lens on the complexities of real human emotion — in short, to be an art.
Mass Effect, despite its science-fiction trappings, is not a child’s game. Much like the “Lord of the Rings” books, it will probably bore all but the most precocious youngsters.
Certainly there are plenty of explosions in Mass Effect, which is being released this week by BioWare for the Xbox 360. There are spaceships and aliens and laser guns. There are firefights to wage and ruins to explore. But the real stars are not the environments or weapons, as in most games. Instead Mass Effect revolves around exquisitely realized characters and serious, at times wrenching, stories — of betrayal, love, duty and perhaps even redemption.
That gets back to the wrinkles.
The best television and film directors realized decades ago that no matter how exciting an action set piece might be as pure eye candy, what really draws in a viewer is an emotional connection with the characters, whether that means Jack Bauer, Oskar Schindler or Luke Skywalker. It is a lesson that has been largely lost on game designers, who tend to use the latest graphics technology as a sort of bamboozlement, a misdirection that makes fast-paced action and flashy special effects the whole point.
But it is not a lesson lost on Mr. Hudson and the rest of the BioWare team in Edmonton, Alberta. Mass Effect does use some of the most sophisticated graphics around, but its explosions are fairly pedestrian. The interstellar settings, while gorgeous, are nothing gamers haven’t seen before. Instead BioWare harnessed all of the Xbox 360’s silicon horsepower to render the most important element of visual storytelling: faces.
It can be disconcerting to realize that in many video games players never see the faces of the characters they inhabit. (Master Chief, hero of the blockbuster Halo series, is as famous for his ever-present helmet as anything else.) They experience most games through either a first-person perspective — peering out through a character’s eyes — or a third-person perspective above and behind their virtual marionette.
In Mass Effect, however, most of the story is shaped through conversations between the player’s character and other denizens of the game’s galaxy. And those interactive conversations have been “filmed” more like a movie than a game. In other words, they have been shot as close-ups from the characters’ fronts, so you can actually see them talking and reacting to one another.
It’s an innovation that has been unthinkable until now because it had always seemed almost impossible to render speaking digital faces that would seem natural to the human eye and ear. It is perhaps Mass Effect’s greatest strength that its characters do just that.
It may be the first game in which the term “digital acting” isn’t an oxymoron. Even the game’s alien races have been animated with a generous anthropomorphism that imbues them with plausibly human emotions. And parsing emotion often comes down to the wrinkles.
“We wanted to create a video game that had the potential to rival live-action movies in terms of cinematic, dramatic power,” Mr. Hudson said in a recent telephone interview from Edmonton. “We wanted our characters to be able to just raise an eyebrow and have it convey a thought or emotion just as it could in a film.”
“If the action in our game is exciting, it’s because you care about the story situation,” he added. “And what makes the story exciting is emotion. And what makes emotion is wrinkles. When you take the wrinkles away, you just have parts of the face moving around like a cartoon, and it really takes away a lot of the subtlety we intuit in human emotion.”

Sony expands PlayStation store to PCs, PSPs

2007-11-22T07:34:00.000-08:00

Sony on Tuesday announced that it is opening up its PlayStation Store--an online source of downloadable games and other content--to PC users. No longer will the store be the exclusive province of owners of Sony's top-end video game console, the PlayStation 3.

PlayStation Portable users will now be able to download games via Sony's PlayStation store.(Credit: CNET Networks)
The company said that the move means that PlayStation Portable users will now be able to download games via the store. Those games include "classic" PlayStation games, as well as a series of new PSP games available only through the PlayStation store. Existing PSP games will also be available.
Among the store PSP exclusives are Syphon Filter: Combat Ops and Beats, both of which cost $9.99 on the store.
The move is probably a good one for Sony, since it means that PSP users will be able to get access to games without having to go to a store to buy them. And for the company's video games unit, which is in strong need of a boost come this holiday season, any expansion of its market is a plus.
However, there's no way to know how much additional revenue the move will produce, and even then, how it will be offset by any overhead costs associated with the expansion of the store to a new medium.

MoveOn.org takes on Facebook's 'Beacon' ads

2007-11-22T07:33:00.000-08:00

Online activist group MoveOn.org is poised to announce a campaign targeting Facebook's "Beacon" advertisements, which post information about users' activity on partner sites (movie rentals, purchases from online retailers) onto their friends' News Feeds. According to MoveOn representatives, the organization considers this to be a "glaring violation of (Facebook's) users' privacy," and has launched a paid ad campaign on Facebook, a "protest group" on the social-networking site, and an online petition to encourage the company to allow users to opt into the program at their own volition.
"The bottom line," MoveOn spokesman Adam Green said in an interview with CNET News.com, "is that no Facebook user should have their private purchases online posted for the entire world to see without their explicit opted-in permission."
It's true that Beacon advertisements are limited to the news feeds of the people on a user's friends list, but Green said that doesn't make a difference. He cited Facebook user testimonials that ranged from members who said their entire Christmas lists had been published on their News Feeds (spoiling many a surprise in the process) to student activists who were concerned that sensitive purchases might show up and result in serious consequences--"If a college kid rents Brokeback Mountain and some homophobic person on his campus sees that, that could be a real problem," he explained.
Beacon does allow members to opt out. But, Green said, that isn't enough for MoveOn, which got its start as a left-leaning grassroots organization. "The opt-out is very well hidden," he said. "It basically pops up for a second and then goes away, and it's on the bottom of your screen when you're purchasing on a totally unrelated Web site, so you aren't even looking for it." He added that there's not a universal opt-out, so members have to repeat the process on each partner site. "Even if you see the opt-out and jump through the hoops of opting out once, that doesn't solve the problem."
Some retailers participating in Beacon say they're familiar with its potential pratfalls, but insist that it will ultimately be a positive development. "I think it's a new technology, and until people get used to it, it might surprise some," said Josh Mohrer, director of retail for BustedTees.com. "We have had a few instances where people were surprised, not necessarily angry, but surprised that their purchase showed up on their Facebook feed...I think when it becomes ubiquitous, which it most certainly will as Facebook things tend to be, that people will get used to it and see it as a good thing."
Mohrer said that he saw where the complaints were coming from. "I think Facebook probably needs to do a better job of warning people about it," he said. "What's bad is that people are probably going to blame the merchant and not Facebook."
Additionally, Mohrer admitted that he doesn't entirely disagree with the concerns of activists who have pointed out potential privacy issues with Beacon. "You should have an option to turn it on," Mohrer added, "not the other way around, especially around this time of year."

Security firm warns of vulnerability in Leopard's Mail

2007-11-22T07:12:00.000-08:00

Apple's Mail is used by a huge number of Mac users, both experienced techies and novices alike. That's why security vulnerabilities in Mail can draw so much attention, as they can affect a fairly large number of people if exploited. Heise Security has drawn our attention to a new vulnerability in Leopard's Mail, which actually isn't even that new—it's the same old vulnerability from a flaw in Tiger's Mail that Apple patched in March of 2006.
The flaw allows Mac users to inadvertently launch malicious code by double clicking on an otherwise unassuming image attachment. Someone could attach a resource fork that does Bad Things™ to a file with a .JPG file extension, for example. When the recipient double clicks on the image, Leopard's Mail will just open it willy nilly, executing any number of things in the Terminal.
When Apple patched the problem in 2006, Mail began to display a warning saying that the image file was actually a Terminal program. Not so with Leopard's mail. "Apple apparently either did not incorporate this update into Leopard, or did not do it correctly," writes Heise, pointing out that the security firm's tests had the Terminal window opening immediately. "In only one email this occurred the first time the attachment was opened, but subsequent double-clicks suddenly caused the expected confirmation dialogue to be displayed."
Such an oversight—especially with something that's already been fixed in the past—is somewhat of an embarrassment, but Apple is sure to hop on it ASAP now that the flaw has been brought to everyone's attention. In the meantime, you can test it yourself by using Heise's Emailcheck tool and by avoiding opening images from people you don't know.

Deutsche Telekom Will Let Rivals Operate iPhones

2007-11-22T07:04:00.000-08:00

Deutsche Telekom, whose exclusive rights for the Apple iPhone in Germany are contested by the Vodafone Group, said yesterday that it would change some terms and let the handset operate on rival networks.

Deutsche Telekom will offer the device for 999 euros ($1,483) without requiring a two-year exclusive contract with its T-Mobile unit, a T-Mobile spokesman, Alexander von Schmettow, said. The original 399-euro offer with a binding contract remains valid, he said.
T-Mobile backed down after Vodafone won a court injunction that bans T-Mobile from selling the iPhone with contracts or the so-called SIM lock that prevents the phone from working on another network. In France, laws stop the Orange unit of France Télécom from selling the device with similar restrictions.

“How many people are going to spend 999 euros on a phone?” said Carolina Milanesi, a research director at Gartner, a research company in Stamford, Conn. “People are not used to spending that kind of money. In every single country now, people are going to look at the possibility of getting around the exclusivity issue.”

German customers who bought the iPhone after Monday, when the Hamburg court ruling took effect, can have their phones unlocked to work with another network operator, T-Mobile said in an e-mailed statement. It said, however, that “many of the functions will only be available to T-Mobile customers with a complete tariff package.”

The features include Web surfing on T-Mobile’s network of 8,000 Wi-Fi access points, and “visual voice mail” that allows users to hear messages without listening to previous ones.
An Apple spokeswoman, Natalie Kerris, declined to comment on T-Mobile’s new offer.
T-Mobile started selling the device, a combination phone and iPod digital music player, on Nov. 9. The company, based in Bonn, has more than 34 million customers in Germany, Europe’s largest wireless market.

McClaren accepts responsibility for failure

2007-11-22T06:54:00.000-08:00

ST. ALBANS, England (AP) - Steve McClaren accepted responsibility for England's failure to qualify for next year's European Championship.
McClaren was fired as England coach Thursday, only hours after a 3-2 loss to Croatia at Wembley Stadium knocked them out of contention for Euro 2008. It's the first time England has failed to qualify for a major tournament since the 1994 World Cup.
"Ultimately, it's my responsibility, my job," McClaren said. "When I took it on I said I'd live and die by results, and I'd live and die by qualification. Judge me on that, and people have.
"I'm not making any excuses," McClaren added. "I'm taking full responsibility. Results didn't go our way and I paid the price ... I'm just hugely disappointed."
After Wednesday's game, McClaren had insisted he wouldn't resign. But Football Association chairman Geoff Thompson announced Thursday morning that the former Middlesbrough manager's contract had been terminated after an emergency meeting by the 12-man FA board.
"It is a sad day to be relieved of my post and I understand decision of the FA," McClaren said. "I have never walked away from anything and I never wanted to.

China warship in key Japan visit

2007-11-21T02:49:00.000-08:00

A Chinese naval vessel has set off on a landmark visit to Japan, the first such port call since the Communist Party came to power in 1949.

The destroyer Shenzhen left China's southern port of Zhanjiang for the week-long voyage to Japan.

It will call first in the capital, Tokyo, on 28 November and then move to the Yokosuka naval base in Tokyo Bay.

The visit was agreed at a meeting in August between defence ministers of the two nations.
The ministers also agreed to set up a military hotline at their talks, the first in the Japanese capital for almost 10 years.

The visit is seen as a sign of improving ties between the two nations, after several years of chill under former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

A Japanese vessel is to make a reciprocal visit at a later date.

England drop Beckham and Robinson

2007-11-21T02:43:00.000-08:00

England v CroatiaWembley, LondonWednesday 21 NovemberKick-off: 2000 GMTCoverage: Live on BBC One & BBC Radio 5 Live (commentary on BBC Sport website for UK users only); Coverage on BBC Sport website
Steve McClaren looks set to gamble on goalkeeper Scott Carson and drop David Beckham for England's vital Euro 2008 qualifier against Croatia on Wednesday.
The England boss is believed to have opted for the inexperienced Carson, with Paul Robinson on the bench.
Chelsea winger Shaun Wright-Phillips is tipped to replace Beckham at Wembley.
Gareth Barry is expected to join Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Joe Cole in a five-man midfield, with Peter Crouch on his own up front.
The back four is tipped to be Micah Richards, Sol Campbell Joleon Lescott and Wayne Bridge.
England need a point to seal qualification for next summer's finals in Austria and Switzerland, and a big win could see them overhaul group leaders Croatia.
And the spirit in the camp is determined.
England captain Steve Gerrard said: "We can't afford to have any slip-ups. We've got to give everything we've got and die out there for the result."
McClaren said he would tell the players his starting line-up on Tuesday at 1830 GMT.
"I know my team and I have done since the weekend but I am not going to reveal it and I am not giving any clues," he said.
McClaren did say he valued experience - but not necessarily in the starting line-up.
"Experience is key in big games - not just playing but on the bench and around the team," he said.
McClaren has stuck by Spurs keeper Robinson throughout a rocky Euro 2008 campaign, but gave Carson his first start against Austria last Friday and may keep faith with the 22-year-old.
BBC Radio 5 Live football correspondent Mike Ingham said: "Steve McClaren is still confident enough despite being without his first-choice back-four to finally drop the man who has been in goal for the last three years, Paul Robinson, preferring Scott Carson.
"He is still confident enough to exclude Owen Hargreaves in favour of Gareth Barry and most unexpected of all perhaps he is backing Shaun Wright-Phillips ahead of David Beckham
"So whatever the outcome this evening McClaren can hardly stand accused of shying away from bold and tough decisions.
"England will play 4-5-1 when they're defending and 4-3-3 when they have the ball and Beckham cannot play in a 4-3-3 because he doesn't play high enough up the pitch."
One player who will definitely not feature is John Terry, although the England captain did take part in training on Tuesday.
"There has been a great uplift with the players coming in on Sunday and especially with John Terry coming in and training with the boys," said McClaren.
"It's always important to have all the players together. We'll have John, Rio Ferdinand, Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney with us on Wednesday.

More shows you shouldn't miss

2007-11-21T02:29:00.000-08:00

November continues with international tours of King Lear and The Seagull in the West End, while Christmas shows beginning elsewhere include a South African version of A Christmas Carol. Mark Shenton has the details...
friday 16 november
The Orange Tree re-discover Elizabeth Baker's 1909 play Chains, opening tonight (following previews from 14 November), which captures a world of lower middle-class life with all its hopes and fears, which was seldom reflected in the theatre of the time.Box Office: 020 8940 3633

The Little Angel Theatre's Cinderella
saturday 17 november
Islington's Little Angel Theatre opens a new puppet production of Cinderella, opening today (following previews from 10 November), based on the classic story by the Brothers Grimm. Featuring original music, marionettes, rod puppets and theatrical wizardry, Steve Tiplady directs a show suitable for those five and over; a shorter, 30-minute version, Little Cinders, will run concurrently from 2 December for those aged 2-5.Box office: 020 7226 1787
monday 19 november
Penelope Keith plays Lady Bracknell in a new production of The Importance of Being Earnest, playing at Richmond Theatre from tonight (to 24 November) as part of a national tour ahead of opening in the West End in January.Box Office: 0870 060 6651

Director's cut: Stephen Poliakoff
ALSO TODAY: following his recent linked dramas for BBC television, Joe's Palace and Capturing Mary, writer and director Stephen Poliakoff is interviewed about his work and his experience as a playwright in the mid-70s, today at the Royal Court Theatre in a free event, starting at 5pm, during which he will also answer questions from the audience.Box Office: 020 7565 5000.
tuesday 20 november
Mike Packer's new play tHe dYsFUnCKshOnalZ! opens at the Bush Theatre tonight (following previews from 14 November), revolving around an attempt to keep the anarchy flag flying by deciding not to sell out to the corporate giants. Tamara Harvey directs a cast that includes Ralph Brown (the infamous drug dealer from the film Withnail and I), Josephine Butler, Julia Ford, Rupert Proctor and Pearce Quigley.Box Office: 020 7610 4224

Forkbeard Fantasy's Invisible Bonfires
ALSO TONIGHT: Forkbeard Fantasy, a touring company specialising in comic cine theatre, bring their latest show Invisible Bonfires to the Toynbee Studios from tonight for a run to 1 December, in which they tackle the issues of climate change and humanity's disregard for the natural world.Box Office: 020 7650 2350
wednesday 21 november
Philip de Gouveia's The Six Wives of Timothy Leary is a new play, opening tonight at Camden's Etcetera Theatre Club (following a preview on 20 November), which spans the ages of jazz, rock 'n' roll and techno and revolves around six women meditating on the highs and 'highs' of being married to counter-culture revolutionary and psychedelic messiah Timothy Leary.Box office: 020 7482 4857
thursday 22 november
Lucy Briers stars in Samuel Adamson's new play, Some Kind of Bliss, opening at the Trafalgar Studios tonight (following previews from 20 November), for a run to 15 December.Box Office: 0870 060 6632

friday 23 november
Michael Pennington reprises his one-man Shakespeare show Sweet William at the Arcola Theatre, opening tonight (following previews from 19 November), for a run to 8 December. The actor looks at Shakespeare's life side-by-side with his work, performing many lesser-known as well as great speeches.Box Office: 020 7503 1646
monday 26 november
Dearbhla Molloy, most recently seen in the West End production of In Celebration, plays a nun at a Bronx Catholic School in the UK premiere of John Patrick Shanley's Broadway hit Doubt, opening at the Tricycle Theatre tonight. Revolving around the suspicions the nun has about a priest's alleged inappropriate behaviour with a black student, it is directed by Nicolas Kent.Box Office: 020 7328 1000
ALSO TONIGHT: Sheila Ferguson (of The Three Degrees), Rula Lenska, Marti Webb and Rachel Izen play women facing the menopause in Hot Flush!, with Sam Kane as the men in their lives, opening at Richmond Theatre for a run from tonight to 1 December as part of a national tour.Box Office: 0870 060 6651

tuesday 27 november
Ian McKellen and William Gaunt share the role of Sorin in a cast that also features Romola Garai as Nina and Frances Barber as Arkadina in a new production of The Seagull, which comes to the West End's New London Theatre at the end of a world tour, opening tonight (following previews from 22 November). It plays in rep with King Lear, opening tomorrow.Box Office: 0870 890 0141
wednesday 28 november
Katie Mitchell directs a new radical interpretation of Euripides' great tragedy Women of Troy, opening at the National's Lyttelton Theatre tonight (following previews from 21 November), with a cast that includes Kate Duchene as Hecuba, Sinead Matthews as Cassandra and Susie Trayling as Helen.Box Office: 020 7452 3000
ALSO TONIGHT: Ian McKellen plays the title role in the RSC's production of King Lear, opening at the New London Theatre tonight (following previews from 15 November), playing in rep with The Seagull (see 27 November above). Box Office: 0870 890 0141
AND: North Finchley's artsdepot presents a stage version of Raymond Briggs' Fungus the Bogeyman, opening tonight (following previews from 24 November), for a run to 6 January. Box Office: 020 8369 5454

The Young Vic's A Christmas Carol
thursday 29 november
The Young Vic open a double-bill of Dickens' A Christmas Carol and Mozart's The Magic Flute today (following previews from 20 November), presented in repertory by a new South African company of 30 performers under the direction of Mark Dornford-May. A Christmas Carol (Kkrismas Kherol) is a musical adaptation of this most enduring of ghost stories, with Pauline Malefane as a female Scrooge in a modern South Africa where the rich prosper as the poor suffer. The Magic Flute (Impempe Yomlingo) re-imagines Mozart's opera with marimbas, drums and township percussion replacing traditional orchestral accompaniment.

various artists: motown - hitsville uk (tamla motown)

2007-11-21T02:24:00.000-08:00

The UK has always enjoyed a love affair with the sounds of this legendary Detroit label, stretching all the way back to the capital's sharp-dressed, dance-crazy Mods, and this accompanying CD to the photo exhibition 'Hitsville UK: Motown In Britain' (at Redferns Music Picture Gallery in west London) is a sizzling compilation that snaps, crackles and pops in all the right places.

Thrill again to obvious classics from the likes of the Supremes, the Four Tops and Marvin Gaye (pictured above) plus lesser known gems from the Elgins, R. Dean Taylor and our very own Kiki Dee - and marvel at the wonder and talent of a pool of artists, writers and producers who truly understood the power of the seven-inch single.
interested?

watch a special video report on the Hitsville UK: Motown In Britain exhibition

the bees: chicken payback (virgin)

2007-11-21T02:16:00.000-08:00

the bees: chicken payback (virgin)This is an absolute belter, featuring a wicked backbeat and madder than mad lyrics that leave a Cheshire cat smile across your face.

It's what I call a single and it seems you cats and chicks agree, making it the People's Choice on my Saturday radio show. Check the boss album Free The Bees, from which it comes, if you haven't done so already - it was one of my faves of last year.interested?

watch the video of 'Chicken Payback' (Real player required)

Two dead in Iraq helicopter crash

2007-11-21T02:08:00.000-08:00

Two UK military personnel have been killed and two seriously injured in an RAF Puma helicopter crash near Baghdad in Iraq, defence officials have said.

An RAF Board of Inquiry is heading to Iraq to investigate Tuesday's crash, but the Ministry of Defence said it was too early to speculate on the cause.

The two injured personnel are recovering in hospital and the next of kin of those killed have been informed.

Defence chiefs said their thoughts were "with the families" of all involved.
The deaths take the total number of UK troops killed in operations in Iraq to 173.

Japan's trial run for migrant workers

2007-11-21T02:02:00.000-08:00

In the third of a series on Japan's population crisis, the BBC's Philippa Fogarty looks at whether migrant workers could help solve an imminent labour shortage.

When Flavia was 10, a teacher at her primary school told her she had no future in Japan.
She had been in the country for a year and was struggling to get to grips with the language.
She remembers the teacher telling her: "You'll never speak Japanese like the Japanese, and you can't keep up. Why don't you go to a Brazilian school? Or back to Brazil?"

Eight years later, when she told him she had been accepted into a top Tokyo university, he could not conceal his shock.

Japan is not big on diversity. Foreign residents make up only 1.6% of the population and successive governments have opposed allowing migrants in, fearing they could create social tensions.

But in 1990, facing a labour shortage, the government came up with a compromise. It would allow second and third-generation Nikkeijin - "people of Japanese origin" - to come to Japan as permanent workers.

Nikkeijin had Japanese blood, the case went, and would speak Japanese, understand the culture and integrate more easily.

Flavia's paternal grandparents were some of the tens of thousands of Japanese nationals who emigrated to South America in the early 20th Century to work on plantations.

When the doors opened, many South American Nikkeijin thronged to Japan. Brazilians are now Japan's third largest group of foreign residents, behind ethnic Koreans and Chinese.
And how Flavia and her fellow Nikkeijin integrate is something that is being watched very closely.

"The introduction of Nikkeijin has been seen as a sort of test case by the government, in terms of how to introduce large numbers of foreign workers in the future," says Dr Yoko Sellek, of Britain's White Rose East Asia Centre.

"The country is ageing and so the government has to think about introducing unskilled workers," she says. "But it sees the problems in the Nikkeijin community as warning signs."
For the newcomers are a lot less Japanese than the government expected. Second and third generation Nikkeijin are sociologically Brazilian, they speak Portuguese and all their cultural references are Brazilian.

'Brazilian equals bad'

Hamamatsu City, an industrial base about 300km south of Tokyo, is home to the largest number of Brazilians. Almost 19,000 have settled there and found jobs in factories.
The city needs them, says local government official Keiko Murakami, because they are doing the work that young Japanese people do not want to do.

So officials have worked to help them by providing language programmes, translating key documents and employing interpreters to help people navigate administrative issues.

On the streets, buildings are signposted in Portuguese. South of the station, Portuguese-language billboards offer driving lessons and bank loans, while shops sell Brazilian DVDs. On the surface, Hamamatsu appears to be embracing its new arrivals.

But rows over things like loud music, parking spaces and rubbish are daily causes of friction. "Their culture and customs are different," says Ms Murakami. "Japan has various rules and they don't know the rules, so this leads to tensions."

One serious problem, she says, is education. Integrating older Brazilian children into the classroom has proved difficult.

While 98% of Japanese children complete high school, the percentage is far lower for the newcomers. Many drop out of middle school too, because they cannot communicate and are often bullied.

This drop-out rate has been linked to high levels of juvenile crime, which in turn has created negative perceptions of the Brazilian community.

Yes, says Flavia, many of her friends have been in trouble for stealing cars. But this is partly because they have been alienated by prejudice and a lack of decent options for education and employment.

"Some of my friends came to Japan aged about 15 and they knew nothing, no Japanese. So they were discriminated against and had to go and work in a factory. It was really hard for them," she says.

"And if people keep telling them, 'You're Brazilian so you're bad', they will do these things."
For workers, meanwhile, low wages and exploitation remain a problem. At the factory where Flavia's father works, he misses out on bonuses and benefits paid to his Japanese co-workers and, after more than a decade of full-time work, has only just received his first days of paid holiday.

In Brazil, he graduated from university and his wife was a teacher. But making the leap to a white collar job is out of the question.

"The Japanese need us but they still discriminate against us," says Flavia. "They say: 'We have the same blood but you're different, so go and work in a factory'. Japanese people don't think we can work alongside them, wearing suits."

'Unresolved issues'

Of course, not all of Flavia's experiences have been bad - some people did go out of their way to help her, she says.

Ms Murakami believes that most Japanese now accept that they will have to live alongside foreigners.

The majority of experts agree, however, that immigration is not the answer to the population crisis because of the numbers involved - some 650,000 annually to maintain the population at its 2006 peak, according to a government report.

Dr Sellek says the government is far more likely to modify current immigration policy - importing more short-term "trainees" from Asia, targeting skilled workers like Philippine carers - than to throw open Japan's doors.

But the Nikkeijin will remain a hot topic.
"If we don't work out the unresolved issues with the Nikkeijin community, then how can we think about taking more?" says Ms Murakami.
"We can't move on to the next stage of the debate until these problems are solved."

'They just diagnosed a broken arm'

2007-11-21T02:01:00.000-08:00

Experts have criticised the standard of trauma care in the NHS, after a study found too many patients were not given the right tests or seen by suitably experienced staff after being admitted.

The McGinns had gone to bed when the phone rang shortly before 1am.
It was a local hospital informing them their 16-year-old son Graeme had fallen off his motorbike.

They were reassured that it was not too serious and he had just broken his arm.
Graeme's father, Tony, 49, from Eastleaze in Swindon, said: "When we got to hospital he seemed OK. He was conscious and he knew who we were.

"He was apologetic and just said he was thirsty and wanted a drink.

"But his condition changed very quickly.
"He seemed to be getting aggressive. His language was more colourful. And he started complaining of a pain in his chest. He said someone was sitting on his chest."
Staff decided to give him a chest X-ray, but Graeme started thrashing around and someone had to hold him down.

And just after, as Tony and his wife were stepping outside for some fresh air, the alarm went off.
The McGinns were told staff were giving their son a heart massage as his heart had stopped.
But before long they were being told the news they dreaded.

"I had started praying, but just before 5am three doctors told us he had died.
"We had to go through all the formalities and all the time I was thinking this is wrong."
It transpired that Graeme had died from internal injuries that had not been diagnosed.

Concern

Mr McGinn said he believes the hospital did not take the case seriously enough.
"They thought he was another 16-year-old who had had too much to drink. They did not seem overly concerned."
Later he was told his son may well have survived if his injuries from the accident in May 2004 had been identified earlier.
"A pathologist said he was fit and well nourished and should not have died from his injuries.
"I believe if they had picked up on the injuries soon enough he would have survived."
And Mr McGinn said the findings of the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death do not surprise him.
The report has revealed over half of patients are not given good enough treatment as staff are often too inexperienced.
He said: "It is all about money these days. But everybody pays their taxes. There should be enough money to do the jobs properly."

EU 'sexual history' quiz denied

2007-11-21T01:50:00.000-08:00

The EU has denied claims it plans to question women about their sexual history as part of a drive to improve census statistics.

The European Parliament is due to vote on Wednesday on the harmonisation of census data across the EU.

The European Commission says it needs better quality data on how people live in order to improve policy making.
But the UK Independence Party said proposed questions about "consensual union" were too intrusive.
The Commission has come up with an extensive list of questions it wants all member states to ask in their next census to improve data on housing and population.
In addition to data on nationality, size of family, ethnicity, it also wants to find out about computer literacy, number of cars owned, cooking facilities and "durable consumer goods possessed by the household".

'Apalled'

One proposed question asks the "date(s) of the beginning of consensual union(s) of women having ever been in a consensual union: (ii) first consensual union and (ii) current consensual union".

UKIP MEP Derek Clark said he was "appalled that the EU thinks it has the right to ask women such deeply personal questions and I defy anybody to give me a reason as to what use the answers will be".

He said the proposed census questions were "the work of a group of MEPs who must spend their private time peering over their neighbours' fences".
"I'd be incredible interested to know how a green-fingered couple in possession of a wide screen TV who sleep together will help housing planning, but I've no doubt the EU will come up with some lunatic reason how it does."

Mr Clark added: "This report is both crackers and deeply offensive.
"When will politicians realise that George Orwell's 1984 was a warning, not an instruction manual?"

'Fertility statistics'

A spokesman for Eurostat, which provides the EU with statistics at European level, said: "This definition has absolutely nothing to do with asking women about their sexual behaviour.
"Consensual union is in fact another term for unmarried partnership.
"Information on consensual unions may be needed in countries where statistics on marriages and on legal marital status do not provide sufficient information on the formation of partnerships.

"Consensual union, as well as information on dates/duration of marriage, is valuable for fertility statistics and extends the knowledge that can be derived from data on number of live-born children."

He said the European Commission proposal contains "no questions related to sexual behaviour" or gardens, as UKIP has claimed.

"The Commission proposal does contain a question related to durable consumer goods, but this refers to major items such as washing machines, fridges and PCs," he added.

The Commission has said it needs more detailed information to plan better policy.
In a document setting out the proposals, it said: "The major objective is to give a sufficiently detailed picture of the structure and characteristics of the population that would allow the in-depth analysis required for planning, administration and monitoring in many policy areas.
"Many such policies have a European component, and the institutions of the European Union as well as member states demand reliable comparisons in the European context."

Bush 'involved' in CIA leak case

2007-11-21T01:43:00.000-08:00

A former White House press secretary has said the US president was involved in misinforming the public over the leaking of a CIA agent's identity.

In an excerpt from his book, Scott McClellan says George W Bush helped mislead the public over the role in the affair of two White House aides.

The CIA agent, Valerie Plame, says her identity was leaked because her diplomat husband opposed the Iraq war.
The White House said Mr Bush would not ask anyone to pass false information.

Lawsuit

Mr McClellan's book is not scheduled for publication until April and the excerpt released was brief.

It refers to a White House press conference he attended in 2003.

At the conference, Mr McClellan told journalists that the two aides Karl Rove and Lewis "Scooter" Libby were "not involved" in leaking Ms Plame's identity.
The excerpt reads: "There was one problem. It was not true.
"I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice-president, the president's chief of staff, and the president himself."
Mr McClellan, who served as press secretary from 2003 to 2006, has made no further comment on the excerpt.
Libby, Vice-President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, is the only person charged over the affair. He was sentenced to 30 months in jail for obstructing an inquiry into the leaking of the identity.
However, Mr Bush intervened in July to prevent Libby from serving a prison term.
Ms Plame said Mr McClellan's excerpt was "shocking".
"I am outraged to learn that former White House press secretary Scott McClellan confirms that he was sent out to lie to the press corps.

"Even more shocking, McClellan confirms that not only Karl Rove and Scooter Libby told him to lie but Vice-President Cheney, presidential Chief of Staff Andrew Card and President Bush also ordered McClellan to issue his misleading statement."
Current White House press secretary Dana Perino said the meaning of the excerpt was unclear.
However, she said: "The president has not and would not ask his spokespeople to pass on false information."
In July a judge dismissed a civil lawsuit brought by Ms Plame against Mr Cheney and other Bush administration officials.
She maintained her cover had been blown after her husband, Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador, said the Bush administration had manipulated intelligence on Iraq to back its case for war.

Man-sized sea scorpion claw found

2007-11-21T01:40:00.000-08:00

The immense fossilised claw of a 2.5m-long (8ft) sea scorpion has been described by European researchers.

The 390-million-year-old specimen was found in a Germany quarry, the journal Biology Letters reports.

The creature, which has been named Jaekelopterus rhenaniae, would have paddled in a river or swamp.

The size of the beast suggests that spiders, insects, crabs and similar creatures were much larger in the past than previously thought, the team says.
The claw itself measures 46cm - indicating its owner would have been longer even than the average-sized human.

Overall, it exceeds the record for any other sea scorpion (eurypterid) find by nearly 50cm.
The eurypterids are believed to be the extinct aquatic ancestors of modern land scorpions and possibly all arachnids (the class of animals that also includes spiders).

"The biggest scorpion today is nearly 30cm so that shows you how big this creature was," said Dr Simon Braddy from the University of Bristol, UK.

It was one of Dr Braddy's co-authors, Markus Poschmann, who made the discovery in the quarry near Prum in south-west Germany.

"I was loosening pieces of rock with a hammer and chisel when I suddenly realised there was a dark patch of organic matter on a freshly removed slab," he recalled.
"After some cleaning I could identify this as a small part of a large claw. Although I did not know if it was more complete or not, I decided to try and get it out.
"The pieces had to be cleaned separately, dried, and then glued back together. It was then put into a white plaster jacket to stabilise it."

Super-sized meals

The species existed during a period in Earth history when oxygen levels in the atmosphere were much higher than today.

The fossil was locked in a siltstone from the Carboniferous PeriodAnd it was those elevated levels, some palaeo-scientists believe, that may have helped drive the super-sized bodies of many of the invertebrates that existed at that time - monster millipedes, huge cockroaches, and jumbo dragonflies.

But Dr Braddy thinks the large scales may have had a lot to do with the absence early on of vertebrate predators. As they came on the scene, these animals would have eaten all the biggest prey specimens.

"The fact that you are big means you are more likely to be seen and to be taken for a tastier morsel," he told BBC News. "Evolution will not select for large size; you want to be small so you can hide away."

The scorpions are thought to have made their first scuttles on to land about 450 million years ago.
While some would have taken up a fully terrestrial existence, others like Jaekelopterus rhenaniae would have maintained an aquatic or semi-aquatic lifestyle.

Ministers under fire over records

2007-11-21T01:33:00.000-08:00

The government's "basic competence" has been questioned by the Tories after the loss in the post of computer discs with 25m people's personal details on them.

The child benefit data on them includes names, ages, bank and address details.

Tory George Osborne said ministers had failed in their duty to protect people, and questioned whether Alistair Darling "is up to the job" of chancellor.

Mr Darling said he "deeply regretted" what had happened, but stressed there was no evidence of misuse of the data.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Darling said his confidence had been "shaken" by what he described as a "catastrophic" incident.

''There's no doubt in my mind there have been very, very serious breaches here.
"People are entitled to trust the government to look after information that is given to it - for child benefit or any other purposes - and that did not happen here,'' said the chancellor.

'Unwelcome'

He said the information, which was on two CDs, should "should never, ever have left the building in which it was stored".

He denied the problem was related to the merger of the Revenue and Customs departments and staff cuts, as claimed by staff members in e-mails to the BBC.

He also hit back at claims his own position as chancellor was in doubt amid continuing difficulties with Northern Rock, which has seen its share price plunge a further 15%.

"I am not going to start running away from things when things get difficult," he told Today.
Referring to the data loss crisis, he said: "It is difficult, unwelcome in every respect, but I am determined to see it through".

'Unusual activity'

Earlier, Mr Darling said banks were monitoring all 7.25 million bank accounts whose details were on the discs, which contained the personal details of all child benefit recipients in the UK.
People are being urged by both the chancellor and banks to keep a close eye on their accounts "for unusual activity".

Mr Darling said that anyone who lost money as a result of any misuse of the data would be covered for losses under the banking code.
On Tuesday the chancellor told MPs how the entire child benefit database was sent by a junior official from HMRC in Washington, Tyne and Wear, to the audit office in London through courier TNT on 18 October. The information was contained on two CDs.
The chancellor said the official had broken the rules by downloading the data to disc and sending it by unrecorded delivery.
But he reassured those affected that police had no reason to believe the discs had found their way into the wrong hands, nor did they have any evidence of it being used for "fraudulent purposes or criminal activity."
Bosses at the Revenue were not told about what had happened until 8 November and Mr Darling and Prime Minister Gordon Brown learned about the situation on 10 November.
The chancellor said he had delayed an emergency statement to the Commons because banks and building societies had asked for time to prepare and make sure security procedures were in place.

Banking code

The officials involved waited before informing their superiors in the hope that the discs would be found.
The Metropolitan Police is leading the hunt for the discs, and the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which oversees the HMRC, is investigating the security breach.

A TNT spokesman said that because the discs had not been sent as recorded it was not possible to verify if they had ever been posted. He added that the company would not be responsible for any losses incurred.
Mr Osborne, the shadow chancellor, said that "people are asking" whether Mr Darling was up to the job.
He told BBC Breakfast that the first duty of any government was to protect citizens, and it had failed to do so.
Mr Darling's job "is clearly on the line", Mr Osborne said, adding that he had a matter of "days or weeks to prove" he was up to the job.

Liberal Democrat Acting Leader Vince Cable asked: "Where does the buck stop in this government?"
Professor Ross Anderson of Cambridge University's computer laboratory thinks the government's strategy of centralising information is too risky.
He said: "This was an accident waiting to happen and if it hadn't happened in this particular case it would have happened elsewhere."

French trains 'hit by sabotage'

2007-11-21T01:26:00.000-08:00

France's high-speed TGV rail network has been damaged by a "concerted campaign of sabotage", the SNCF state-owned rail operator has said.

It said acts of sabotage overnight, including fires, caused huge delays to TGV services already hit by a long transport union strike over reforms.
The SNCF blamed militants for the attacks, saying they wanted to harm negotiations to end the strike.

The talks between rail unions and the government are to open on Wednesday.
In a statement, the SNCF said there had been "several acts" occurring "at the same time" on TGV lines in the north, east and south-west of the country.

It said these included a "very large" fire on the TGV's Atlantic branch that damaged signals affecting 30km (18 miles) of track.

Union officials deplored the attacks as acts of vandalism, warning that they put people's safety at risk.
The open-ended rail strike is over planned changes to the pension system by President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Mr Sarkozy has vowed to press on with the reforms.

The TGV network was targeted several hours after French Labour Minister Xavier Bertrand had said he hoped the talks with transport unions would help end their strike.

"I think the conditions are there for everyone to get out of it honourably," he was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.
President Sarkozy also urged the protesters to go back to work now that negotiations were beginning.
"Everyone must ask whether it is right to continue a strike which has already cost users - and strikers - so dear.
"I think of those millions of French people who after a day of work have no bus, metro or train to take them home and who are tired of being used as hostages."
The government has said there could be incentives of salary rises and a top-up scheme for pensions.

But it has stressed that there will be no budging on the core issue of eliminating special pensions which allow 500,000 transport and utility workers to retire early.
Didier Le Rester of France's General Labour Confederation has predicted that the negotiations could last up to a month.

Commuter havoc

Before the latest incidents, SNCF had estimated there would be slightly improved rail services on Wednesday as the number of strikers steadily declined.

Paris transport operator RATP said about 25% of its metro trains would be running.
The week of strikes has caused havoc for millions of commuters across France.
Businesses have started complaining that the strikes are hurting their operations.
Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said the dispute was costing France up to 400m euros (£290m) a day.

On Tuesday, hundreds of thousands of civil servants joined striking transport and energy workers over what they say is an erosion in their earnings and proposals to slim France's large public sector.
But Mr Sarkozy said reforms were overdue and that they were necessary "to confront the challenges set by the world".
"We will not surrender and we will not retreat," he said.

Country Music and Political Connections

2007-11-21T01:16:00.000-08:00

Kurt Campbell is an expert on Asia and security issues who is now chief executive of the Center for a New American Security. He served in the Pentagon in the Clinton administration, in charge of Asia/Pacific issues, and earlier taught at Harvard. Kurt has written widely, for popular and academic audiences, about everything from Japan to nuclear policy.

Since the disappointing outcome of the last Presidential elections, Democrats have been haunted by a lurking anxiety: Is the party that prided itself on understanding the lives and challenges of common Americans now out of touch with the rank and file? Has the persistent Republican harping on how Democrats are a bunch of Volvo-driving, brie-cheese-eating elitists hit a nerve?
Certainly the 2006 congressional contests that saw Democrats surge to victory and reclaim majorities in the House and Senate helped, but there are still underlying worries about how to make a deeper cultural connection to rural and suburban America. For those blue-tinged partisans who have not yet thrown in the towel and movedto New Zealand, there is a real temptation to mount an anthropological expedition to one of the big red splotches of Republican America to learn more about life in the heartland in order to better compete for hearts and minds and votes.

However, there might be an easier way to gain deeper insights into the soul of America even without leaving the obvious attractions of Blue State life. In just a few minutes a day, without leaving the comforts of coastal living, you too can learn about what matters most to those hard core Bush backers and new Huckabee zealots across Midwest and South by simply tuning your radio dial from NPR, soft jazz, or rock and roll oldies to your nearest country western station, the one that still boycotts the Dixie Chicks. Country music – not jazz, hip hop or blues – is the most authentic and popular form of music in America today.

That’s right, modern country western music provides the most compelling and honest insights into life in rural, homespun America. Unlike previous caricatures of country music with its hillbilly stories of hard drinkin’ and cheatin’ hearts, modern hits often tell more complex stories of everyday struggles that resonate powerfully with many Americans.

Scan the hit charts of a recent country countdown. There is the song about a wife struggling to keep her young family together and her composure while her husband fights in Iraq. There is the catchy tune with a poignant verse about a man trying to be a better person in the midst of losing his job and hoping to find his life’s purpose. Another twangy hit describes comforting family traditions passed down from father to son and the insights that come with the passing of time and the turn of generations. Then there is the one about reaching out and putting America’s boot to the posteriors of the terrorist enemies of America. Truth be told, country music sensibilities tend toward Old Testament punishments rather than New Testament forgiveness and redemption.

Taken together, contemporary country western music paints a picture of an America committed to hard work and traditional family values. It is deeply God fearing but can be surprisingly compassionate and open-minded, sometimes when you least expect. The songs describe regular people striving to live better lives in the midst of temptations and daily reminders of failure.
However, country music is also revealing of a deeper (and darker) nativism that lurks in the modern American worldview. There is the occasional pride in ignorance and the seeking of refuge in black and white simplicities. Foreigners do not fare well generally, when they are not altogether ignored in song lyrics, and the overall genre does serve some generous helpings of xenophobia to go along with the biscuits and gravy.

Still, most songs are uplifting, often inspirational, even with the occasional ode to the attractions of NASCAR or the nearby saloon.

Yes, even with its love for the vehicular and alcoholic, country western is the best place to start to learn a little something about what it means to have a family, to struggle making ends meet, to own a gun or a pickup truck, to support our troops unquestioningly, to enlist in the military and fight our country’s wars and to generally be very proud of what America stands for — and to profess confusion over just what all this fuss is about when it comes to our foreign policy choices.

For Democrats striving to know what lurks in the heart of a Red State voter, it’s a pretty good place to start. And, you might find yourself singing along to the sad story of some hardscrabble and down on their luck guys looking to make a connection, just like the Democrats.

The Little Gold Man Made Me Do It

2007-11-21T01:09:00.000-08:00

SERIOUS moviegoers tend to view the Oscars as a sideshow, and a déclassé one at that, with little relation to quality cinema. Important Films, the convention holds, do not don a revealing frock and traipse the red carpet, risking a fondling by Isaac Mizrahi.
But the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ growing tendency to nominate and vote for ambitious, risky films — movies that reside outside the forest of studio blockbusters — suggests that the annual bacchanal actually nurtures important work.
In a business that is almost always about the money, the appeal to vanity — a shot at the most coveted prize in almost any industry — has yielded the so-called Oscar film, a movie aimed at adults that makes its debut late in the year with an eye toward getting a date with the statue. The current season is thick with such releases: “Atonement,” "Charlie Wilson’s War,” “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” “Into the Wild,” “Lars and the Real Girl,” “Michael Clayton,” “No Country for Old Men,” “There Will Be Blood” and many others. Oscar hopes undoubtedly played a role in the executive decision to approve these movies, which are not exactly going to have hordes of teenagers lining up at the multiplex.
That is not to say that absent gold-plated dreams, some of these films wouldn’t have been made, only that more of them made it to a significant number of theaters, and did so with the kind of budgets and stars that can make for great movies. If the conceit holds true — industry insiders say the word “Oscar” comes up in serious movie pitches as much as “and” and “the” — people who care about serious “fil-lims” should skip the marathon of Iranian documentaries on Feb. 24 and assemble some friends and nachos to watch this year’s Oscars, with Jon Stewart as host.
It would be nice if there were a pot of gold statues at the end of this particular holiday season, because after healthy summer box-office grosses it’s been brutal out there. All sorts of serious movies have collided and then collapsed in the fight for audiences. The filmgoing public is all the better for all these movies, but the dreary financial numbers will go down a little better if film companies are in the hunt for an Oscar, the kind of recognition that could provide a boost for movies that still have a ways to go to recoup their costs.
The general formula for most filmmaking could be broken down thusly: Concept + stars + brute-force marketing = hoped-for payday. The studio system, with a need to appeal to plenty of people with huge opening weekends, does not generally lead to great cinema. But when the hydraulics of prestige are introduced into that equation, odd and wonderful things can happen. Big paydays are forgone by actors, directors work with (and for) far less money, and studios put money and promotion into films that have limited financial horizons. Actors, producers and directors know that when all is said and done, their obituaries are not going to mention their lifetime box-office tallies. The Oscars, by forcefully acknowledging artistic excellence, help people access the angels of their better natures.
“Oscar movies can be a kind of check and balance that can produce innovation, movies that break new ground and point the way for the future,” said David Poland of the Web site Movie City News (moviecitynews.com).
Making movies is a trying collective endeavor, and attempting to make one that contains difficult subject matter — the best-picture nominees in 2005 tackled journalism, homophobia, racism and terrorism — can be Sisyphean. No one ever got chased off a studio lot for not failing to back, say, a multilingual triptych about the vagaries of human communication like “Babel,” a movie that Paramount Vantage backed last year to a best-picture nomination. John Lesher, president of Paramount Vantage, Paramount’s specialty film division, said the film was made because it was a good idea, not because it might win awards. But once “Babel” was in the hunt, “it helped brand the film,” he said. “It is less about making a prestige film than the fact that actors want to do good work in addition to making blockbusters. The best, most interesting careers do both.”
And if generating great big box-office returns were the only consideration, how much work would we be seeing from Philip Seymour Hoffman, the anti-movie star who hardly meets the studio standard for “relatability” but seems to be one of the best actors on the planet and won the best-actor Oscar for the 2005 film “Capote”? As it is, he is present this season in “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead” and “The Savages.”
“Think of how many projects get made because their backers think or hope or dream that they are going to be Oscar movies,” said Sasha Stone, the longtime Academy blogger who runs Awards Daily (awardsdaily.com). “The answer this year, and most, is a lot.”
Much of the Oscar appetite is coming from the actors themselves. After Halle Berry revealed much of herself in “Monster’s Ball” for a best-actress win for 2001 and Charlize Theron disappeared under mounds of makeup in “Monster” to similar effect for the 2003 award, actors realized that more than ever, forgoing a big check in the short run for a vivid turn in a high-quality movie could lead to long-running credibility and perhaps bigger roles down the road.
“Actors and directors say the word to their agents, and their agents say it to them to get them to do a movie,” said Mark Gill, chief executive of the Film Department, a new independent company. “It may not be the sun — the be-all and end-all — but it is certainly the moon, with a significant gravitational pull.”
Industry executives said that the Oscars have become part of the lexicon of making deals, with contracts that offer bonuses for nominations and awards, even getting down to the specifics of an Oscar campaign in support of the movie. And a financial calculus of another sort is entering the picture along with some of the newer players in the industry.
“There’s a lot of fresh money coming into our business,” said David T. Friendly, who received a nomination last year as a producer of “Little Miss Sunshine.” “Most of these investors have already made their fortunes. So what are they really after? A lot of them are trying to make films that make a difference and movies that might land them that ultimate prize."
And say what you want about the Oscars, there is no sure-fire way to game the Academy process, other than finding great directors and giving them the resources to make an ambitious film. Cynics and outsiders like to suggest that Academy members are too far removed from the cultural mainstream to reflect the best of contemporary cinema. But a look at the choices for best picture in recent years suggests that they don’t always play it safe. In 2005 “Million Dollar Baby” came out of nowhere to win, and “Crash” took the same route in 2006. Like them or hate them, they still represented fully realized visions that had nothing to do with selling action figures.
The allure of the Oscar is precious precisely because there are so few of them — one best movie, one best actor, one best actress — and because the award maintains fundamental integrity. The Academy process, for all its excesses, still carries great weight in the industry in part because it represents the will of 5,800 members from all branches of the industry, both active and retired.
“A lot of us in the Academy take our membership as a kind of fiduciary responsibility,” said Robert Shaye, co-chief executive of New Line Cinema. “We are being asked what we want the world to see of our industry, and that inspires respect and even some awe from those who accept the responsibility.”
Sure, there are occasional outrages — few would argue in retrospect that “Dances With Wolves” is a better movie than “Goodfellas,” as the Academy did in 1990 — but things started to change in the mid-1990s, most especially in 1996. That’s when four small movies — “The English Patient,” which won, “Fargo,” “Secrets and Lies” and “Shine” — all became best-picture finalists, along with a single big-studio picture, “Jerry Maguire.” And under Harvey Weinstein, Miramax proved that a specialty division, albeit with Disney’s backing, could fight from the hills and win it all, as it did with “Shakespeare in Love” in the awards for 1998.
James Schamus, chief executive of Focus Features, Universal’s boutique division, pointed out that many of the current Academy members came of age professionally in the ’60s and ’70s during an explosion of ambitious cinema. Their reflex, he said, is toward taking artistic risks.
“The Academy has stepped out of the mainstream in many of their choices over the past few years because many of the people who are voting have that rebel spirit from those days,” said Mr. Schamus, whose offerings this Oscar season include “Atonement” and Ang Lee’s “Lust, Caution.” “But there is no sure way to make that happen. You can’t put the cart before the horse. We all have dreams of holding a statue and thanking all the little people, but you have to do the work on a great movie that succeeds in a very certain way. And that’s no simple matter.”

Heartbreak and Healing, Sometimes Both at Once

2007-11-21T01:03:00.000-08:00

From the moment Barbara Cook planted herself on stage at Avery Fisher Hall on Monday evening and sang “Lucky to Be Me,” a blissfully confident declaration of well-being from “On the Town,” it was obvious that Ms. Cook, who celebrated her 80th birthday on Oct. 25, meant every word. “I could laugh out loud” became a whoop of joy. The concert found this Broadway lyric soprano not only alive and kicking but in great voice and the best physical shape (trimmer, walking without support and breathing easily) than I’ve seen her in many years.

Monday’s sold-out concert, which was repeated yesterday and also sold out (a third date has been added for Jan. 8), was a rare New York engagement in which she was accompanied by a full orchestra (the New York Philharmonic, no less), conducted by her sometime musical director Lee Musiker. A brilliant pianist who enriches show tunes with jazz chords and a swinging pulse, he is the most inventive of her accompanists, even including her longtime musical partner, Wally Harper, who died three years ago. An accelerated, scampering version of “Lover, Come Back to Me,” in midshow propelled her to a comfortable perch on the brink of jazz.
The arc of Monday’s concert, which ran 90 minutes without intermission, suggested a musical and spiritual journey from faith and innocence through a dark night of the soul that is ultimately rejected with a vigorous assertion of optimism. To hear Ms. Cook sing “A Wonderful Guy” and “Give Me the Simple Life” back to back in the first third of the concert was to hear a performer spreading the gospel of simplicity, self-reliance and truth.
These two songs reminded you that there was a time in American culture when it was O.K. to be “as corny as Kansas in August” and to yearn for the bucolic. (“Sounds corny and seedy/But yes indeedy/Give me the simple life.”) As she delivered these songs without frills, it became clearer than ever that the essence of her art lies in an utter lack of artifice. There is just the voice singing the songs, and the woman feeling her feelings, with no attitude to impede communication. Even at its sunniest, her good will never appears glib. She knows who she is and speaks human to human, with an astonishing lack of narcissism.
Around the halfway point the descent began with an inspired pairing of “I’m Through With Love” and “Smile” outfitted by Mr. Musiker with dark, churning new orchestrations. “Smile” soared beyond its customary get-well card sentiments from the moment she sighed the title, as though putting on a brave face required almost more effort than she could summon. The internal battle ended in a stalemate rather than a rainbow.
The depth of despair arrived with another inspired pairing, orchestrated by Mr. Musiker, in which Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson’s “Lost in the Stars” gave way to Stephen Sondheim’s “No More” from “Into the Woods.” Both songs address confusion and loss of faith, and you could even read political content into some of the phrases from “No More,” a helpless plea in the midst of chaos for an end to strife.
Then abruptly the ascent began with a punchy, down-home rendition of “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive” that was one step away from outright gospel. Again Ms. Cook peered deep into the song and found more than a clever, sprightly ad for positive thinking. Punching out Johnny Mercer’s lyrics, she took the song to emotional boot camp.
That may be a place you have to visit before arriving at the plateau where Ms. Cook stood on Monday: a transcendent American voice sharing the wisdom she has gained in 80 well-lived years with a tenderness and honesty that could break your heart and mend it all at once.

China wins major Afghan project

2007-11-20T16:00:00.000-08:00

A Chinese mining company has won a tender to develop one of the world's largest copper mines in Afghanistan.
The state-owned China Metallurgical Group says it will invest nearly $3bn in the mine at Aynak in the province of Logar, south of Kabul.
Officials say it will be the largest foreign investment in Afghan history and will employ 10,000 people.
When construction is complete the company will pay the Afghan government $400m a year.
'World-class'
The Afghan government wants to attract foreign companies to make mining a key sector of an economy that is on a slow recovery after three decades of war.
The Aynak copper deposits in Logar province were first explored by Soviet geologists in the 1970s. But then the Soviet invasion of 1979 and years of warfare put an end to plans to develop them.
Officials say the area contains an estimated 13 million tonnes of copper, making it a world-class site.
It is also in a relatively safe area, not far from the capital.
The $3bn that the China Metallurgical Group is to invest in Aynak compares with a total of $4bn which the Afghan government says foreign companies have invested in the country since the overthrow of the Taleban six years ago.
Once it goes into operation in five years' time, the mine will provide hundreds of millions of dollars of much-needed revenue for the cash-starved Afghan government.
It will also provide thousands of jobs in a land where unemployment is one of the most pressing problems.
Kabul hopes to attract more foreign mining firms.
The Aynak tender was hotly contested by companies from Canada, Australia and Russia, as well as China.
Experts say Afghanistan's mountains are rich in minerals, which could become a significant base for the revival of the country's shattered economy.
Apart from copper, there is coal, iron, gas and oil.
There is also a sparkling assortment of gemstones - emeralds, tourmalines and garnets, and the lapis lazuli mines which provided jewelry for the Egyptian pharoahs three thousand years ago.

Bangladesh makes fresh aid plea

2007-11-20T15:56:00.000-08:00

Bangladesh has called for more aid for tens of thousands of Cyclone Sidr survivors, amid concerns that some remote areas have not yet been reached.
The country's army says it has yet to deliver aid to 30% of coastal villages hit five days ago by the storm.
There is anger among many villagers on the stricken south coast that they have still not received vital supplies like food, water, shelter and medicine.
The storm has affected 1m families and killed at least 3,100 people.
The death toll is expected to rise.
A statement from Bangladesh's foreign ministry said: "At this time we will welcome support from the international community. We are doing as best as we can do ourselves."
The BBC's Alastair Lawson, at Bangladesh's storm-stricken Sunderbans mangrove forest, says aid is beginning to get through and army helicopters are criss-crossing the skies.
Tense atmosphere
But the atmosphere is tense and relief when it does arrive may be too little, too late for many survivors, he says.
Some people have barely eaten since the storm struck and our correspondent has witnessed villagers fighting over rice.
The BBC's Mark Dummett says the scenes of devastation get worse and worse the further one travels towards the coast of the Bay of Bengal.
Crowds stand along the shoreline in front of their flattened villages, waving red flags made from their clothes, he says.
Cyclone Sidr, which struck late on Thursday, packed winds of up to 240km/h (150mph) and a tidal surge of several metres.
It brought down power lines and wiped out vital crops.
Bangladesh's Red Crescent society says up to 10,000 may have died.
At the coastal town of Patharghata, mother-of-three Safura Begum told AP news agency: "I've been waiting here for several hours hoping to get some food and drinking water.
"But I'm not sure it will come."
The Bangladeshi government has already received offers of emergency aid worth $140m (£68m).
Among major donors is Saudi Arabia, which has pledged $100m. The UK is sending $5m.
The US has offered $2m and is sending two amphibious naval vessels with helicopters to help the relief mission.
Coastal Bangladesh is a maze of waterways, creeks, islands and sandbanks and the only way to reach the area is by boat. The government's early-warning system is being credited with saving many lives.
Officials say that in many areas 95% of rice has been destroyed, while shrimp farms and other crops were simply washed away.
Southern Bangladesh is hit every year by cyclones and floods, but Cyclone Sidr is the most destructive storm to hit the country in more than a decade.
Another storm in 1991 left some 143,000 dead.

Invites issued to Mid-East summit

2007-11-20T15:45:00.000-08:00

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have received invitations to US-sponsored peace talks in Maryland.
The US state department confirmed that key Arab states including Syria and Saudi Arabia had also been invited.
The Bush administration hopes the conference will relaunch negotiations to establish a Palestinian state, seven years after the last talks failed.
The talks are being held on 27 November at the Annapolis naval base, Maryland.
Washington is still trying to persuade Arab states, including Saudi Arabia and Syria, to send delegates.
US President George W Bush telephoned leaders on Tuesday, among them Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi King Abdullah, the White House said.
However, Syria again insisted that it would not attend the meeting unless the return of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights was on the agenda.
Preparations
Negotiations on a joint Israeli-Palestinian document to serve as a blueprint for future talks have made little progress, casting a cloud over the summit.
Israel and the Palestinians are divided over the fate of the West Bank, Gaza, and east Jerusalem, occupied by Israel since 1967, and the Palestinian refugee problem which dates back to the establishment of Israel in 1948.
Earlier in the day, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak held a rare meeting to co-ordinate preparations for the Annapolis meeting.
Israel and the US have been pressing for high level Arab representation at the meeting.
Arab foreign ministers are meeting in Cairo on Friday to co-ordinate their positions, although each government is to decide separately whether to send a delegation.
Egyptian officials say they are convinced the US is now committed to launching a serious peace process and its foreign minister is expected to attend.
Analysts say other Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, believe Israel has not offered enough assurances about its seriousness to reach peace and to make the necessary sacrifices.
Syria has said it will only join the conference if the issue of the Golan Heights, also occupied by Israel in 1967, is on the agenda.

Aid cuts for Europe's big farmers

2007-11-20T15:43:00.000-08:00

The European Agriculture Commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel, has announced plans to reduce funding for Europe's biggest farmers.
Anyone currently receiving more than 100,000 euros (£71,000) as part of the Single Payment Scheme would have their aid capped.
The proposals come as part of a "health check" for the 49.8bn euro (£35bn) Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
Farmers in the UK, Germany and the Czech Republic would be most affected.
Simplifying the system
The commissioner says the Single Payment Scheme which was introduced in 2003 should be simplified. Its original aim was to replace the subsidies linked to the amount of food a farmer produced, a change described as "decoupling". Announcing the proposals, Ms Fischer Boel said the reforms four years ago had modernised the CAP but it was time to move the review forward.
"Does the fact that we are conducting a Health Check imply that the patient is sick?" she said.
"Certainly not: but it's quite normal for perfectly healthy people to visit their doctor to see whether they need to do anything different to ensure they stay in good shape."
The 2003 reforms were brought in when the European Union had only 15 members and the commissioner is keen to make "market support instruments" still relevant now that the EU's membership has expanded to 27.
In the past, those supports involved quotas and public intervention. Ms Fischer Boel says it is now time to consider how to create "the right intervention system - one which works as a safety net".
Capping the CAP
Under the proposals, which have been announced at the start of a six-month consultation, the direct payment received by farmers would be capped according to the amount of aid they receive.
up to 100,000 euros - unaffected
100-200,000 euros -10% cap
200-300,000 euros - 25% cap
above 300,000 euros - 45% cap
Such a system would naturally target the larger landowners and the commissioner says it would have to differentiate between multiple-owner farms with many workers and single-owner farms with just a few.
At the other end of the scale, a minimum level of payments could be set before aid kicks in, although the commissioner says it would not affect "real farmers".

Ian Smith leader Ex-Rhodesia dies

2007-11-20T15:37:00.000-08:00

The former prime minister of Rhodesia, Ian Smith, has died aged 88.
The cause of his death is unknown but he had been ill for some time at a residential home in South Africa.
He illegally declared independence from Britain in 1965 and his white minority government led the country for 14 years amid international scorn and sanctions.
Following a bitter bush war with black nationalists, his government was overthrown by Robert Mugabe in 1979, leading to the creation of Zimbabwe.
The BBC's James Robbins says that to the end of his days Ian Smith was convinced that Rhodesians, black and white, would have fared better under his leadership than in the Zimbabwe of Robert Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party.
Steeped in the colonial values of his Scottish immigrant father, our correspondent says Mr Smith was a born leader with a distinguished war record as an RAF fighter pilot.
He helped to found the right-wing Rhodesian Front, which came to power in 1962, and when the-then prime minister, Winston Field, baulked at the prospect of seizing independence, the party turned to Mr Smith, who gave them what they wanted.
Sidelined
Years of civil war followed the declaration of independence. Ian Smith denied this was caused by the actions of his regime and insisted there was nothing wrong with five million blacks being ruled by 200,000 whites.
In the end, Mr Smith maintained, it was not his enemies who beat him, but apartheid South Africa's threat to cut Rhodesia's lifeline.
Margaret Thatcher's UK government brokered a peace deal in the Lancaster House talks in 1979 and a black-majority government took over Zimbabwe.
Ian Smith remained a key player in Zimbabwean politics until seats reserved for whites were abolished in 1987.
When in retirement, he failed to create a united opposition to Robert Mugabe, and Mr Smith was finally relegated to the sidelines.

Sarkozy Defiant Against Strikers

2007-11-20T15:16:00.000-08:00

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has vowed to maintain his controversial economic reforms despite a second week of crippling industrial action.
He said the reforms were overdue and that they were necessary "to confront the challenges set by the world".
Hundreds of thousands of civil servants joined striking transport and energy workers on Tuesday over the proposals.
The 24-hour action is said to be the largest protest against Mr Sarkozy's reforms since he took power in May.
In his first comments since the stoppage began, Mr Sarkozy said: "These reforms have been put off for too long.
"After so much hesitation, so much procrastination, so many U-turns, a complete break is now needed to stop the decline." Adopting a defiant stance, he said French voters gave him a mandate to carry out economic reforms when they elected him.
"This clean break I promised to the French during the election campaign. The French approved it," the president said in a speech to an assembly of mayors.
"We will not surrender and we will not retreat," Mr Sarkozy added.
Analysts say Mr Sarkozy is attempting to succeed where his predecessor Jacques Chirac failed, by standing firm against the strikers and completing his reforms.
Opinion polls suggest voters back the French leader's plans to reform "special" pensions which allow transport and utility workers to retire early, but that civil servants have the sympathy of a majority of people.
Commuter chaos
Teachers, postal workers, air traffic controllers and hospital staff launched a 24-hour stoppage on Tuesday over planned job cuts and higher wage demands, as students continued to demonstrate over university funding plans.
Many thousands joined street protests in Paris, Rouen, Strasbourg, Marseille, Grenoble, Lyon and other cities.
The latest nationwide stoppage left many schools closed, hospitals providing a reduced service and newsagents without newspapers.
The French capital's two airports and Marseille airport in the south suffered delays and cancellations.
Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said the dispute was costing France up to 400m euros (£290m) a day.
The CGT union representing French energy workers, who began a 24-hour strike on Monday night, said they had cut nearly 9% of capacity at nuclear plants.
Rail and bus workers are on their seventh day of an indefinite stoppage against planned pension cuts.
Half of the country's high-speed TGV trains were operating on Tuesday, while in Paris only one metro train in three was in service and less than half of buses were running.
State rail operator SNCF, which is due to hold talks with transport unions on Wednesday, says the number of its workers on strike had fallen since last week.
But with traffic gridlock on Tuesday, the stoppage still caused havoc for millions of commuters across France.
Talks to restart
Eight unions representing 5.2 million state employees - around a quarter of the entire workforce - say their spending power has fallen 6% since 2000, though the government disputes that figure.
They also oppose plans to cut 23,000 jobs in 2008, half in education.
Students are continuing to disrupt classes in half of the country's 85 universities.
They have been protesting since the start of November over plans to let faculties pursue non-government funding.
The transport workers' strike was triggered by plans to scrap "special" pensions privileges enjoyed by half a million staff.
Transport unions voted on Monday to extend their walkout, but have agreed to attend talks with SNCF on Wednesday.
The government has relaxed its earlier stance that it would not enter talks unless strikers return to work.
On Monday Prime Minister Francois Fillon said rail traffic must "progressively restart" for talks to take place.
But he insisted the government would not budge on its commitment to overhaul the French economy saying it had a mandate to reform.