LONDON – The Ministry of Defense is under the scanner after a National Audit Office report has revealed that it’s projected budget limits have been crossed and are in the red by about £2.7 billion.

This overspend has happened even after the MoD trimmed its costs by £699 million over the last 12 months. These findings have emerged from the annual NAO report, which analyzes defense spending in the country. The report further states that the MoD had to make close to £1 billion of cuts in order to rein in the spending.

These cuts mostly affected the number and quality of the defense equipment that was to be procured. Plus the fact that existing equipment like the Jaguar and Sea Harrier fighter jets were sent into early retirement also played heavily on the cuts. The proposed outlay for the Type 45 destroyer project has also been culled by £145 million in an effort to control the costs.

The report also said that there had been some perplexing delays in the delivery of weapons systems extending to about 45 months. The National Audit Office also said that it had included the costs of the Eurofighter project into its report since it was commercially sensitive at the moment. The Eurofighter has now been dubbed as Typhoon.

“The decrease in the forecast costs is a positive sign that the MoD is starting to bring its equipment programme under control,” said NAO chief Sir John Bourn. “However, it is too early to judge whether this is the start of a sustained improvement in the MoD’s project management.”

However, the report meant that the focus is now back on the MoD since it will have to explain the overspend in Commons. Edward Leigh, the chairman of the public accounts committee in Commons looks in no mood to relent. He said that his committee had warned MoD of the need to cut back on spending.

“I sincerely hope that this year’s report is the beginning of a new direction for the MOD but there have already been too many false dawns – and congratulations or celebrations would be far too premature,” Leigh commented.

LONDON: Prime minister Tony Blair said the increased demand for influenza vaccine was unforeseen and the government has ordered 200,000 doses to be supplied immediately to overcome the deficit.

Rebutting criticism that his government had bungled in making available the required supply of flu vaccines, Blair said adequate measures have now been taken to ensure that the vaccination program went on unimpeded. He said the shortage has been as a result of rise in demand caused by concern over bird flu.

The government has asked doctors yesterday to administer the vaccinations only on those suffering from chronic disease and the elderly even as the department of health ordered for the replenishment.

The department said most of the 400,000 vaccine doses available with it in contingency reserve are now being distributed to doctors who, it said failed to order enough ahead of time. About 50,000 doses are being kept in reserve for poultry workers in case of an avian influenza outbreak.

The department had on Monday said that there were 11 million people in the groups recommended for flu jabs, with 14 million doses ordered from manufacturers — a generous margin. However, in the face of questioning by opposition, the department had to admit yesterday that 11 million covered only England, and the real total of those entitled to a free jab in the U.K. was 13.2 million. So the 14 million doses were sufficient, but not by a huge margin.

A spokesperson for the prime minister, Tom Kelly, told media that the government had ordered 14 million doses of the vaccine for this year, against 11.7 million doses used in 2004, a 20 per cent increase. These are being delivered through December, though some practices had reported shortages because of higher-than-expected demand during their annual immunization programs.

Blair told the parliament that it is difficult to plan for these things accurately.

The government came under attack from conservative party leader Michael Howard, who doubted its capability to handle a pandemic. He accused health secretary Patricia Hewitt of inefficiency and incompetence.

Hewitt had earlier blamed the GPs for the shortfall, but the department had to admit that it had muddled English and UK figures.

She later apologised to patients who could not get their injections and announced an urgent review of arrangements, including release of vaccine from the contingency stocks. The additional 200,000 doses ordered will be delivered in January.

The Royal College of Nursing has warned that the country could face a nursing crisis as many nurses are being lured abroad by offers of better pay and benefits. It also said that the nursing population was ageing very rapidly and that adequate measures must be taken to make sure that the NHS does not suffer another nursing crisis similar to the one in the 1990s.

The main issue for foreign nurses who settled here is the low pay scales that are offered that are offered on the NHS. Josie Irwin, head of employment relations at the RCN said that many nurses are now looking at better opportunities abroad, “We have Filipino and Indian nurses who may have come to the UK via Saudi Arabia and the Emirates some time ago, who are now looking to move onto other countries. They are tempted by offers from America and Australia, who are recruiting staff aggressively,” she said. The problem is especially acute in Scotland where the average age of an experienced nurse is 50, according to the RCN Labour Market Review.

RCN Scotland warned that over the next decade this problem would be compounded by the fact that many nurses will head into retirement and that the home grown nurses are being enticed by better opportunities abroad. “Our ageing nursing workforce will inevitably lead to more and more nurses leaving the NHS in the next 10 years as they reach retirement age,” said Jane McCready, chairwoman of the RCN Scotland board. She added that employers needed to start planning for the future.

“We should also remember that older nurses who do continue to work are less likely to work full-time. The NHS needs to be flexible enough to encourage them to stay on,” Ms McCready said. She said that these nurses had much more to offer and that every measure should be taken to encourage them to stay on.

Scottish Health Minister Andy Kerr promised to look into the situation, “We’ve got an issue in terms of the retiring profile of the nurse cohort at the moment but we can work with that and do things which will keep them on,” he said.

LONDON: Partridge Fine Arts, one of the most respected antique dealers in the world, is being offered to a consortium, Amor Holdings Ltd, set up by porcelain dealer Mark Law specifically to bid for the company. Amor has the financial backing of auction house Christie’s.

Besides Law, Amor Holdings has on its board former British culture secretary David Mellor.

John Partridge, 76-year-old chairman of the family-run company, had put it on the block in February as he found it difficult to run it for want of funds. As he made a formal offer to Amor, he said he had “no attractive alternative” to accepting a lowly 4 million pounds for the company as it is running out of cash.

Amor said it would pay an initial 35.4 pence per share, or about 4 million pounds, for 51 per cent holding in the company, a price well below Partridge’s closing price of 55-1/2p on Thursday. However, it said it will pay more, as per an agreed formula, if an auction of some of Partridge’s antique properties fetched over 4 million pounds. It also has an option to buy the remaining shareholders through a deferred offer in four years.

The buyout will end the Partridge family control of the store, set up way back in 1902, primarily to acquire antiques for Queen Mary. John Partridge, grandson of the founder, will relinquish his 47 years of chairmanship of the firm, though he will continue in an advisory capacity for two years. Law will be the new head of the company. Mellor and Lady Cobham, a former board member of the Victoria & Albert Museum, will join the board of the company as non-executive directors.

Partridge is known for having built the famous collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, California, and some of its clientele include the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Rijks museum in Amsterdam and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Located in New Bond Street, London, it has a stock of more than 1,000 items at any given point of time in its 70 galleries. Some of the antique pieces in its possession include 18th century English and French furniture, Old Master paintings and English and Continental silverware.

The company maintains photographs of every item sold by it since World War II.

The Partridge family members will share 75 per cent of the price among themselves, with the balance going to some 350 private and institutional shareholders.

Law said Amor’s offer is better than minority shareholders would have received had the company been liquidated. Amor will immediately bring in 500,000 pounds in cash to tide over financial difficulties. It will also proceed to cancel the listing of the company.

TUNIS, Tunisia – A hand-cranked laptop expected to cost $100 was unveiled by the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunisia today. The laptop is expected to be widely available for schoolchildren in poor countries by the end of 2006.

The prototype of the green machine was exhibited for the first time by MIT’s Nicholas Negroponte. Mr. Annan called the innovation “inspiring”. He said that the initiative of MIT was an expression of global solidarity, “Children will be able to learn by doing, not just through instruction – they will be able to open up new fronts for their education, particularly peer-to-peer learning,” he observed.

The machine is a wind-up crank and uses very less power to start up. It also allows children to interact with each other while they are learning, thus promoting greater understanding of the subject.

“The idea is that it fulfils many roles. It is the whole theory that learning is seamless,” said Professor Negroponte. “Studies have shown that kids take up computers much more easily in the comfort of warm, well-lit rich country living rooms, but also in the slums and remote areas all around the developing world.” Mr. Negroponte is the man behind the non-profit One Laptop Per Child initiative that envisages a laptop per child in poor countries so that the kids can be imparted a seamless education. The machine was showcased at the summit, which aims to lessen the technological gap between the rich and the poor.

Many countries have already shown great interest in buying the machine, which is expected to roll out in February next year. Negroponte said that Thailand and Brazil had shown the maximum interest and although nothing had been finalized yet, had indicated that they would like to be a part of the deal. “We are launching with six countries initially, then six months later, as many countries as possible,” said Negroponte.

Google and media mogul Rupert Murdoch have already indicated their support for the initiative. “The digital divide is a learning divide – digital is the means through which children learn leaning. This is, we believe, the way to do it,” Negroponte concluded.

SYDNEY: Australia’s budget airline Virgin Blue Holdings Ltd reported a drop in its net profits for the year ended September to A$105.2 million from A$157 million a year ago. The airline has been struggling against high fuel costs — a 76 per cent increase during the year, which a hedging plan and fuel surcharge on tickets could not help neutralise — and the result was largely in line with the guidance.

The company is fighting a A$4.6 billion takeover attempt by transportation company Toll Holdings Ltd. It is 62.4 per cent owned by port operator Patrick Corp Ltd. It the acquisition goes through, Toll is planning to offer part of Patrick’s stake to existing shareholders.

This will help the other key shareholder, British airline operator Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, increase its holding to 40.5 per cent from the current 25.1 per cent.

Virgin Blue said it hoped gain more revenue from the business travel market to grow earnings. It also announced a maiden A$0.25 a share final dividend, paying out A$262 million.

Chief executive Brett Godfrey said the airline had been in the process of consolidation. It had cut on costs and increased productivity, withdrawn from loss-making routes and invested in business traveller strategy. “We are now well positioned to take advantage of the size, scale, and frequency achieved in our 2003-2004 expansion,” he said.

The company said increase in the fuel price had pushed its cost per available seat kilometer to AD 0.0784 from AD 0.0747 a year earlier. Operating costs rose 22.2 per cent to AD1.60 billion.

Launched four years ago, Virgin Blue now has roughly one third of Australia’s domestic airline market. But, it faces competition from national carrier, Qantas, which also has its own budget airline, Jetstar.

It is believed that the dividend payment, more than double the company’s annual profit, affords company chairman Chris Corrigan’s Patrick Corp. some A$164 million in cash to fight the hostile takeover by Toll.

Baugur, an Icelandic investment group, has decided to buy Mappin & Webb, the UK jewellers whose clientele include among others the Queen. The 32-outlet chain of Mappin & Webb (MW) will be merged with the Goldsmiths chain of jewellers which Baugur had bought in May 2004. This consolidated group is expected to become the “leading high-end jeweller” of the UK.

Landsbanki, the Icelandic bank, will advise Baugur in this acquisition deal worth around 20 million pounds. MW Group will be sold by European Acquisition Capital (EAC), the private equity company that owns about 75 per cent of the stake. Nick Evans, the chief executive, along with other senior managers holds the remainder stake.

Baugur and EAC are supposed to have beaten rivals like the American chain Tourneau and private-equity groups to bag this deal. Mappin & Webb was advertised for sale in June this year by its largest investor by private equity group European Acquisition Capital.

According to Companies House, MW Group made an operating profit of £1.6m in the year ending March 2004.

Mappin & Webb was founded in 1774. Its scale of operations is smaller than that of Goldsmiths. Apart from the jewellery chain, it also owns the Watches of Switzerland business and runs the Rolex and Patek Phillippe stores housed on London’s Bond Street along with luxury goods such as Georg Jensen jewellery and Jaeger Le-Coultre watches.

Among its other assets are the grocer Iceland, Hamleys the toy shop. In French Connection, it is the second-largest shareholder. Mappin & Webb is also a silversmith to the Queen and the Prince of Wales.

Baugur is expected to buy a stake of around 40%. The chairman and chief executive of Goldsmiths, Jurek Piasecki, is also said to be investing along with Icelandic investment bank Straumur.

The acquisition will make Baugur a jewellery behemoth with 200 stores churning out an annual turnover of £275m. Baugur is expected to defer its acquisition till the New Year, as it wants Mappin and Webb to concentrate on its Christmas selling.

LONDON: Online casino and poker operators who release advertisements that violate law will be prosecuted. Secretary of state for culture, media and sport Tessa Jowell told the British Casino Association’s annual general meeting that action will be taken if the advertisements break existing laws. She said there will be a crack down on advertisers and publishers who knowingly break the law.

Jowell said subject to consultation, no more applications for certificates of consent to run new casinos will be entertained after April 2006, mainly with a view to avoid proliferation of smaller casinos.

All the online casinos and poker sites operate offshore. These offshore companies take bets from punters in the U.K. but, unlike land-based casinos, are allowed to advertise because they are outside the jurisdiction of British law.

The Gambling Act 2005 has provisions allowing them to operate from Great Britain for the first time.

Jowell said the plan is to disallow gambling firms advertising free entry to online tournaments or indicating the value of prizes. Casinos are allowed to promote their brands, but they cannot offer inducements to gamble. She said she finds that advertisements in newspapers and on London Metro platforms had flouted rules.

The proposed crackdown could act as a further blow to online gaming, which has suffered from lack of investor confidence and falling share prices.

Internet gambling company Partygaming, however, welcomed the action saying it supports such measures. The company’s director John Shepherd said his company is fully compliant with the law, and it is very strict about it.

Jowell said her department, jointly with the regulator Gambling Commission, would send letters to advertisers, publishers and gambling firms, warning them against violating the existing norms. The letter will clarify the legal status on the issue and violators are liable for fines of up to 5000 pounds and jail terms extending up to two years.