Microsoft investigates 'phantom' Windows Phone 7 data

10 January 2011 Last updated at 15:26 GMT

Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer has promised updates to the operating system soon

Microsoft has told BBC News that it is investigating why some handsets running its Windows Phone 7 software are sending and receiving "phantom data".

Several net forums detail complaints from people that say their phones are automatically eating into their monthly data plans without their knowledge.

Some have complained that their phone sends "between 30 and 50MB of data" every day; an amount that would eat into a 1GB allowance in 20 days.

Most complainants are based in the US.

"I received an e-mail from AT&T saying that I was close to my 2GB data limit which truly shocked me as I feel I do not use data that much," a phone owner called Julie told Paul Thurrott's supersite for Windows.

"I went and looked at my AT&T account online and noticed that my phone was sending huge chunks of data seemingly in patterns."

Another said that they had noticed that the phone's "idle data usage is around 2-5MB per hour".

"This seems quite excessive to me - what exactly is being transferred? This even happens at night when I'm not getting any e-mails at all," they wrote on Howard Forums.

Some have speculated the problem may be related to the phones sending "feedback" to Microsoft about the software's performance or that the phones are using a 3G connection even when wi-fi is available.

"We are investigating this issue to determine the root cause and will update with information and guidance as it becomes available," said a Microsoft spokesperson.

Windows Phone 7 was launched in October 2010 to acclaim by manufacturers and users.

It is considered the company's first credible challenge to rival operating systems from Apple, Google, Research in Motion and Nokia.

At the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer said that the firm would soon release "a series of platform improvements" in response to users' feedback.

These will include copy and paste capabilities and performance improvements when loading or switching between applications.

Burma's new parliament to convene on 31 January

10 January 2011 Last updated at 09:13 GMT

Burma held its first election in 20 years last November

Burma's new parliament is to meet for the first time on 31 January, three months after the military-ruled nation's first elections in 20 years.

State television said the two-chamber parliament would convene in the capital, Nay Pyi Taw, citing an order from junta leader Gen Than Shwe.

The main junta-linked party said it won almost 80% of available seats. A quarter were reserved for the military.

Western nations said that the polls, on 7 November, were neither free nor fair.

Final election results have not yet been released.

The official first sitting will mark the implementation of the new constitution and see the transfer of power from the military government to a parliament and president.

Representatives of military-linked parties - many of them former officers who stood down to stand in the polls - are expected the dominate the chambers.

But there will also be a small number of lawmakers representing Burma's ethnic parties and its pro-democracy opposition.

Under the new constitution, parliament will elect a president. It is not yet clear whether Than Shwe is eyeing this role.

But the BBC's Asia correspondent Alastair Leithead says with many former military leaders now in parliament and Gen Than Shwe still firmly in control, any real change seems unlikely.

The party that won Burma's last elections, in 1990, is not represented in parliament.

The National League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, boycotted the polls because of laws it said favoured the junta's allies and sidelined key opposition leaders.

Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest six days after the polls.

Chavez condemns OAS 'interference' in Venezuela

10 January 2011 Last updated at 00:13 GMT

Mr Chavez has clashed with Mr Insulza before

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has accused the Organization of American States of interfering in Venezuela.

Mr Chavez was responding to comments by OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza, who criticised a law which gave the Venezuelan president the power to govern by decree.

Mr Insulza said on Friday that the law was "completely contrary" to the Inter-American Democratic Charter.

But Mr Chavez has dismissed the remarks as "shameful".

The left-wing Venezuelan leader accused Mr Insulza of acting on behalf of "US imperialism".

"The poor secretary general of the OAS is a sad spokesman of the empire," Mr Chavez said in his weekly radio address.

But he said the US would not succeed in damaging Venezuela's international prestige.

"Undemocratic"

The enabling law was passed by Venezuela's national assembly last month, shortly before a new parliament took office with an opposition contingent large enough to block major legislation.

It gives Mr Chavez the power to pass laws without needing the support of parliament for 18 months.

Mr Chavez says he needs the powers to deal with the consequences of devastating floods that left more than 140,000 people homeless.

But Mr Insulza said the measure was "not within the spirit or the letter" of the Inter-American Democratic Charter, and said the OAS would probably discuss it.

His comments echo remarks by US Assistant Secretary of State Arturo Valenzuela, who called the law "undemocratic" and said it violated the charter of the OAS.

Venezuelan opposition groups have also condemned the measure, saying it has moved Venezuela closer to dictatorship.

Land seizures

Mr Chavez says he is drawing up a law allowing his government to accelerate the seizure of privately-owned land and buildings to re-house people made homeless by the floods.

He defended the occupation of some private buildings in Caracas last by people claiming to be flood victims.

"They are old and mostly abandoned buildings and when you ask for the owners, it turns out they are in Spain or France or Miami," he said.

The Venezuelan government says it has taken over more then 2m hectares (5m acres) of rural land in recent years, mostly from farms and ranches that were underused or where ownership was not properly established.

It says the aim is to boost food production and give land and livelihoods to the poor.

But opponents of the land seizures have protested, saying they damage the economy and often target working farms.

Brazil Finance Minister Mantega warns of trade war

10 January 2011 Last updated at 02:25 GMT

Guido Mantega coined the term "currency war" last year

Brazil has warned that the world is on course for a trade war because of what it says is currency manipulation by China, the US and others.

Finance minister Guido Mantega said Brazil was preparing moves to prevent further appreciation of its currency.

He said his government would raise the issue at the World Trade Organization and the G20 group of rich and developing countries.

Mr Mantega was speaking in an interview with the Financial Times newspaper.

"This is a currency war which is turning into a trade war," Mr Mantega said in his first major interview since Dilma Rousseff took office as Brazil's new president on 1 January.

He said Brazil's trade with the US had slipped from an annual surplus of about $15bn (£9.6bn) to a deficit of $6bn because of US efforts to revive its economy through loose monetary policy.

"The exchange rate is one of the main drivers of economic policy, more so even than productivity," he said.

Mr Mantega added that China's "undervalued currency" was also distorting world trade.

He has been finance minister since 2006. In September last year he accused some rich countries of deliberately devaluing their currencies to boost exports and make their economies more competitive.

The Brazilian real has increased by 39% against the US dollar in the last two years.

Its value has been going up steadily as Brazil's economy has grown, making Brazilian exports less competitive.

Brazil has been swamped by a flood of foreign capital that is taking advantage of low interest rates in the developed world to chase high returns in emerging economies, the BBC business reporter Linda Duffin says.

The International Monetary Fund warned in October that some countries appeared to be trying to use their currencies "as a weapon" and the issue of currency manipulation was discussed at the G20 summit in November.

France says Niger Frenchmen 'killed in cold blood'

10 January 2011 Last updated at 15:31 GMT

The two men had grown up together on the same street in northern France

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has said the two Frenchmen killed in Niger were shot dead in cold blood by their captors during a failed rescue.

He also said he was "almost certain" the pair, Antoine de Leocour and Vincent Delory, were the victims of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqim).

The men's bodies were found after the operation on the Niger-Mali border.

France has defended the action, arguing that doing nothing would have signalled that France does not fight terrorism.

Defence Minister Alain Juppe has flown to Niger to speak to the authorities about the situation and to meet some of the French community.

"It was a serious, difficult decision but we took it and we take full responsibility," he said on Sunday night, adding that President Nicolas Sarkozy had made the decision to intervene.

French forces and helicopters were also involved in the mission.

Victims 'executed'

The two men, both 25, were abducted by four gunmen from a restaurant in the capital Niamey on Friday night.

Mr Fillon has suggested they were murdered as the attempted rescue took place the following day.

"The hostage-takers, seeing they were pursued, killed the hostages in cold blood, according to the first elements in my possession," he said.

But a senior Niger military official told Reuters news agency that the bodies were found away from the scene of the clash, implying that they were probably "executed" before the rescue mission.

Relatives have reportedly asked to see the bodies.

French anti-terror police have already arrived in Niger to investigate the deaths.

State of shock

Mr de Leocour had worked for a non-governmental organisation in Niger for several years.

He was due to get married to a local woman next week and Mr Delory, who was to be his best man, had flown in for the wedding.

The people of Linselles gave their condolences for the two French victims

The two friends had grown up together on the same street in the small northern French town of Linselles.

"I'm in no state to talk right now, I'm in shock, I can't believe it," said Mr Leocour's fiancee, Rakia Hassan Kouka.

"I'm going to pray for them, so that they can go to paradise," she told AFP.

Another childhood friend of Mr Leocour who travelled to Niger for the wedding spoke to France's Europe 1 radio station.

"We came to see him married and now we're going to see him buried," said the man named only as Louis. "I am torn between pain and hatred."

It is reported to be the first time French nationals have been abducted in the capital city Niamey.

Six others have been kidnapped in Niger since last April but mostly from more remote desert areas.

Paul Jewell named as Ipswich Town manager

Jewell has Premier League experience with Bradford and Wigan

Paul Jewell has been appointed as the new manager of Ipswich Town.

Jewell, who has signed a two-and-a-half-year deal, has been out of work since resigning as Derby boss after a 1-0 defeat by Ipswich in December 2008.

"I've actually enjoyed my time out and I've done a lot of re-evaluating mistakes I've made in the past," the 46-year-old told BBC Radio Suffolk.

"I've had four or five offers but I was starting to get really hungry and was missing the day-to-day of football."

Previous boss Roy Keane was sacked on Friday after a run of seven losses in nine games left Town three points above the Championship drop zone.

Jewell will not take charge until after Wednesday's League Cup semi-final first leg tie with Arsenal at Portman Road.

Coach Ian McParland will continue to take care of first-team affairs until then.

The ex-Wigan and Bradford striker found managerial success with his former playing clubs, winning promotion to the Premier League with both sides.

Ipswich owner Marcus Evans told the club's website: "I wanted to appoint a manager with several years of experience behind them who also had a history of promotion and then staying up.

"I have been lucky enough to find a manager in Paul who has done that twice and pertinently with two clubs that had never been in the Premier League.

"It was also important to bring someone to the club who could play the way Ipswich expect the game to be played and who will embrace the club's role in the community."

The new manager has yet to compile his coaching team but Chris Hutchings, who was Jewell's assistant at Bradford, Wigan and Derby, is available after being sacked as Walsall boss last week.

"When a new manager comes in they normally bring in their own staff," said Jewell.

"But I'm not saying anything's set in stone because it only happened last night.

"I've made tentative enquiries about who I'd like to bring here, but whether I can or not I don't know."

606: DEBATE Why don't people like him? He took Bradford up and kept them up, took up Wigan from lower leagues and kept them up and took them to the League Cup final redhotitfc

Jewell's 13-month spell at Pride Park saw the Rams relegated from the Premier League and he left with the club 18th in the Championship.

In 1999 he led Bradford to the top flight for the first time in 77 years and managed to keep them up a year later.

A forgettable spell with Sheffield Wednesday followed, where he lasted just six months and was sacked in February 2001 after 12 wins from 38 games.

But Jewell was back in the Premier League in 2005 after leading Wigan from League One to the top flight in three seasons.

The full extent of the task in front of him was underlined on Sunday, when Town were hammered 7-0 by Premier League champions Chelsea in the third round of the FA Cup.

Edinburgh Zoo panda deal clinched

10 January 2011 Last updated at 13:11 GMT

Tian Tian was born in 2003 and is to be moved to Edinburgh Zoo soon

An agreement has been signed to bring two giant pandas to Edinburgh Zoo, the first to live in the UK for 17 years.

The deal was signed at Lancaster House in London by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland and the Chinese Wildlife Conservation Association.

It was witnessed by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Vice Premier of China Li Keqiang.

Tian Tian and Yangguang, a breeding pair born in 2003, will be under the custodianship of the zoo society.

The project represents the culmination of five years of political and diplomatic negotiation at the highest level and it is anticipated the giant pandas will arrive in their new home as soon as a date is agreed.

David Windmill, chief executive officer of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), which runs Edinburgh Zoo, said: "This is a landmark day for RZSS, Edinburgh Zoo, the UK and China.

Yangguang is a mate for Tian Tian

"It represents the beginning of a programme of research, education and partnership and the project has huge benefit for the UK and Scotland, both in supporting giant panda conservation and in enhancing our programmes in education, science and conservation."

Mr Liu Xiaoming, ambassador of China to the UK, said: "Pandas are a Chinese national treasure.

"This historical agreement is a gift to the people of the UK from China.

"It will represent an important symbol of our friendship and will bring our two people closer together."

Iain Valentine, Edinburgh Zoo's director of animals, conservation and education, said: "These wonderful animals will be housed in a specially-refurbished enclosure which was formerly home to our gorillas.

"The enclosure will offer a good mix of comfort and visibility so the public can see the couple as they settle into their new home.

"We are looking forward to welcoming a delegation from the CWCA to Edinburgh later this week to view the zoo and discuss our plans in detail."

Endangered species

Fiona Hyslop, Scotland's culture and external affairs minister, said: "Edinburgh Zoo has a world-leading reputation for animal conservation and I am delighted that Scotland has been chosen to take part in China's breeding programme for giant pandas.

"The agreement gives Scotland an important role in securing the future of this endangered species.

"As well as supporting China's work to protect these animals, the arrival of the pandas is expected to bring significant economic benefits for Scotland in terms of tourism, attracting hundreds of thousands of additional visitors to the zoo.

"Edinburgh Zoo has demonstrated that it has world-class expertise to breed and care for these rare animals and this announcement reflects our continuing work to strengthen the cultural, educational and economic links between Scotland and China."

The giant panda project will be funded through sponsorship.