iTunes 'biggest US music seller'

iTunes has sold four billion songs since its 2003 launch

Apple's iTunes has overtaken supermarket group Wal-Mart to become the largest music retailer in the US, an independent study has said.

Market research firm NPD said iTunes surpassed Wal-Mart in January and February if 12 downloads are considered equal to the sale of one CD album.

Steve Knopper, a reporter for Rolling Stone magazine, said the news showed the big change in music retailing.

iTunes has sold more than four billion songs since its launch in 2003.

iTunes 'biggest US music seller'

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Big names sign up to iTunes rival

Gbox will offer tracks not covered by copy protection technology
Some of the world's biggest record labels including Universal and SonyBMG have begun selling music through a new download service, challenging Apple.

Customers can buy tunes through Gbox at the same price charged by market leader iTunes - 99 cents (50 pence) a track.

Music fans can download tracks direct from Gbox or from the online retailer Amazon. However, only US customers can currently make use of the service.

Gbox will also benefit from a special advertising deal with Google.

Big names sign up to iTunes rival

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Wi-fi buses drive rural web use

The vehicles can effectively send and receive emails from villagers
Buses equipped with wi-fi are being used to deliver web content to remote rural villages in the developing world.

In rural India and parts of Rwanda, Cambodia and Paraguay, the vehicles offer web content to computers with no internet connection.

The buses and a fleet of motorcycles update their pages in cities before visiting the hard-to-reach communities.

As well as offering popular pages, the United Villages project also allows users to request specific information.

Wi-fi buses drive rural web use

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BT to pump £1.5bn into broadband

BT plans to plug some homes straight into the fibre-optic network

BT is to invest £1.5bn in fibre optic cables, giving up to 10 million UK households access to faster broadband.

The plans would bring 40% of homes in reach of an ultra-fast service by 2012.
BT is also planning to put fibre-optic cable into about 1 million homes, making the service even faster for those customers.

However, the communications group has made clear it will only make the move if regulator Ofcom allows it to get a
decent return on that investment.

BT to pump £1.5bn into broadband

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Further banks may fail, says IMF

More European banks could fail before the financial crisis ends

More European banks "may fail" as doubts persist about the viability of their business models, the International Monetary Fund has warned.

Private funding is "virtually unavailable" and banks will have to rely on public intervention, asset sales and consolidation, it said.

The six-monthly study also warns that eurozone economic growth will almost grind to a halt next year.

Growth in the 15 euro countries will fall to just 0.2% in 2009, it forecast.

Further banks may fail, says IMF

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Gloomy forecasts for UK economy

King: 'It now seems likely the UK economy is entering a recession'

The Bank of England governor and an influential think tank have predicted that the UK economy is likely to sink into recession in 2009.

Mervyn King told business leaders in Leeds he was concerned about rising unemployment and falling house prices.

Meanwhile, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research said the UK was on the brink of its first full year of recession since 1991.

Economic fears sent the pound plunging to a five-year low against the dollar.

Gloomy forecasts for UK economy

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Sarkozy wants top EU economy team

Mr Sarkozy is steering the EU presidency until January

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has called for a European "economic government" to ensure a more united EU response to financial turmoil.

The leaders of the 15-nation eurozone should co-ordinate their actions with the European Central Bank, he said.

Meanwhile the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Europe should weather the worst of the turmoil thanks to the EU's "crisis management" measures.

Sarkozy wants top EU economy team

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'Race question mark' over US town

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Fayette County residents on the race issue

"I'm not voting for Obama, he's black."

Charles is a registered Democrat in Uniontown, Pennsylvania.

"If it wasn't for Obama I would vote Democrat. Blacks just cause trouble, that's the taste I've got in my mouth."

Race is the question mark hanging over this election.

Barack Obama is ahead in the polls. There's a widespread feeling now that the election is his to lose.

But there is something that is worrying Democrats. How accurate are the polls? How many voters are saying they will vote for Mr Obama because they do not want to be perceived as racist?

Once they enter the polling booth will it be an entirely different story?

Simply put, how many people out there think like Charles but are not admitting it?

'Race question mark' over US town

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'Fart gas' link to blood pressure

Hydrogen sulphide is behind the smell of rotten eggs

The gas best known for being used in many stink bombs may also control blood pressure, say US researchers.

Small amounts of hydrogen sulphide - a toxic gas generated by bacteria living in the human gut - are responsible for the foul odour of flatulence.

But it seems the gas is also produced by an enzyme in blood vessels where it relaxes them and lowers blood pressure.

The findings in mice may lead to new treatments for high blood pressure, the Science journal reported.

'Fart gas' link to blood pressure

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Shares volatile on recession fear

Investor sentiment continues to take a battering

Investors have seen another volatile trading day after a slew of weak corporate earnings stoked fears on Wall Street of a United States recession.

The main Dow Jones index fell as low as 8,251 points before closing the day up 172 points or 2% at 8,691.

The technology-heavy Nasdaq in contrast lost 0.73% to close at 1,603.9 points.

London's FTSE 100 index closed 1.16% higher at 4087.8, while in Germany the Dax index ended up 1.12% and France's Cac 40 index was 0.38% higher.

Shares volatile on recession fear

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Japan sees further market losses

The Nikkei has had a hard week

Japan's Nikkei stock index continues to suffer, losing almost 7% of its value.

News that electronics giant Sony had halved its full-year profit forecast spread gloom over the market.

Meanwhile, South Korea says growth in its economy, which has been battered by the current financial crisis, is at a four-year low.

Its Kospi benchmark share index fell 7.5% on Thursday to hit a three-year dip, and its currency, the won, has lost a third of its value this year.

Japan sees further market losses

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Financial crisis 'like a tsunami'

Alan Greenspan says financial crisis is 'like a tsunami'

Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan has called the recent turmoil in the global financial markets a "once in a century credit tsunami".

Speaking before Congress, Mr Greenspan, who stood down as Fed chairman in 2006, said the crisis had left him "in a state of shocked disbelief".

He added that recovery in the US housing market was "many months" away.

However critics said Mr Greenspan could have boosted regulation of the markets to help prevent the crisis.

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