IN THE PAPERS
In the papers 16 August
16-08-2007
by Sylvia Leatham
Babcock & Brown to record Eircom loss | Journalists sue HP over spying scandal
The Irish Times reports that shares in Eircom owner Babcock & Brown Capital lost 10.54 percent on the Australian stockmarket after the investment fund said it would record a loss of up to EUR100 million from the Irish telco to pay for 900 redundancies. Although staff will leave Eircom over a three-year period, Babcock said it would make a provision for the entire programme in forthcoming accounts for the year to June. Figures will be released on 28 August.
The paper also says that three prisoners found with mobile phones in Dublin prisons have each been sentenced to one month for the offence. The term of imprisonment in each case will be served concurrently to sentences already being served, meaning they will not spend any extra time in prison. The three are believed to be the first to be imprisoned under new legislation introduced to target the illegal use of smuggled mobile phones in jails.
The Irish Independent says that employers' body IBEC has warned that the declining numbers of students taking higher-level maths is posing a serious danger to the Irish economy. Read more on this story on ENN.
The Irish Examiner reports that Pigsback.com is to launch in Canada in the autumn, as noted by ENN back in June.
The paper also says that ICS Computing has won a software and services contract with Victor Chandler, as noted by ENN on Wednesday.
The same paper reports that a website promoting the Beara Peninsula in west Cork has mysteriously acquired links to pornographic websites. Castletownbere-based county councillor Noel Harrington said he would be making a complaint to the Gardai about the matter.
According to the Financial Times, Hewlett-Packard's boardroom-spying scandal has re-entered the spotlight as a group of reporters and their families sued the PC maker over its controversial internal investigation into the identity of a boardroom mole. The lawsuits come one year after it emerged that private investigators working on HP's behalf used false pretences to obtain the private phone records of journalists and HP board members. A group of reporters, including three from online news service CNET, are alleging that HP's investigation invaded their privacy and caused them emotional distress.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the US Federal Communications Commission is seeking to shut the door on a plan by a group of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs to offer a free Wi-Fi service nearly everywhere in the US. M2Z Networks issued a statement saying it would take the FCC to court in an attempt to force the agency to conduct a thorough analysis of the plan before it determined whether it would back it. The company has proposed taking 25 megahertz of spectrum that is currently vacant and using it to build a wireless broadband network to provide free service to 95 percent of Americans within a decade.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 