Infozone Breaking World News

Microsoft has announced that it has banned nearly 600,000 people from its Xbox Live service for modifying their consoles to play pirated games. Microsoft stated that modifying an Xbox 360 console to play pirated games violates the services ‘terms and conditions’ and will lead to players being banned.

The statement said, “All consumers should know that piracy is illegal and that modifying their Xbox 360 console to play pirated discs violates the Xbox Live terms of use, will void their warranty and result in a ban from Xbox Live”.

Adding that, “The health of the video game business depends on customers paying for the genuine products and services they receive from manufacturers, retailers, and the third parties that support them.”

It is hoped that this move will be a deterrent against video game piracy, which costs the video games industry an estimated £750 million a year.

Microsoft has not revealed how it determined which gamers to ban, but said that all of the consoles affected had been verified as breaking the term and conditions of the service.

This morning Sir Bobby Robson lost his long battle with cancer.
A family statement released this morning said

“”It is with great sadness that it has been announced today that Sir Bobby Robson has lost his long and courageous battle with cancer.”

He sadly passed away peacefully this morning at his home in the north east.

Aged 76, bobby has been fighting cancer since 1991, he has managed some great football teams over his career including Porto, Barcelona and of course England, when he took them to the 1990 World Cup semi-final where they famously lost on penaties.

More than 60 people have been left injured after a series of mini pile ups on Germanys A2 Autobahn known as the Autobahn 2 which connects the Ruhr region in the west to Berlin in the east.
More than 259 cars were involved in the accident which German police have blamed on a mix of excessive speed and heavy rain. The German motorway police have said that 10 people are suffering from life threatening injuries and 21 were left with series injuries.

Germany Autobahn

Today, the BBC was fined a total of £95,000 by Ofcom for broadcasting radio quizzes that listeners could not win. The fine covers 13 quizzes between 2005 and 2006, including 8 from Dermot O’Leary’s Radio 2 show and 5 competitions broadcast on Tony Blackburn’s BBC radio London shows.

The media watchdog Ofcom found that all of the shows had been pre-recorded, so there was no way that listeners could take part in them. The Ofcom report stated that a full apology should be broadcast by BBC Radio 2 at a time to be decided by the watchdog.

The BBC has accepted the fine, saying that Mr O’Leary’s show was pre-recorded on certain occasions due to “the presenter’s other work commitments”, and stated that the competition winners were selected via the programs website or newsletters.

BBC Radio 2 will be fined £70,000 and BBC Radio London will be fined £25,000; both stations will have to broadcast apologies at a time deemed by Ofcom.

Children’s charity Barnardo’s has been at the centre of an investigation by the Advertising Standards Authority over its advert showing child abuse and drug taking. The advert, which shows a young girl being hit by a man and later on taking drugs has had nearly 500 complaints since it was first aired.

But in a ruling by the ASA, the advert will still be shown and said that the adverts use of shocking images was justified. In a statement by the ASA they said, “The scene involving violence, although shocking to watch, showed the violence as unacceptable behaviour and did not encourage or condone it.”

The Statement went on to say, “We concluded that the aim of the ads justified the use of such strong imagery,”

The ASA added that the advert was only shown after 2100 hours and away from programs that were popular with children.

In a separate statement, a Barnardo’s spokesperson said: “We hoped that viewers of the advertisement would be able to look beyond the challenging story and realise that this is a very real issue and that the shocking fact is that for some children the story will keep repeating itself until someone stops it.”

Woolworths Group PLC has announced that it is going into administration, after talks of a potential sale of its 815 stores ended yesterday. Woolworths has appointed Deloitte as their administrator, which stated that there were “expressions of interest” for the huge UK retail and distribution business.

Woolworths has been trading for nearly 100 years, but fell foul as competition grew with the boom in internet buying and the current economic climate, spiralled debts to £385 million. Over the past few months Woolworths was also forced to pay in cash to its suppliers, as trade credit insures weren’t prepared to insure against the struggling firm.

Deloitte has reassured staff that the company will stay open past Christmas, and that the 30,000 strong workforce will be paid. All of Woolworths 815 store are open as normal, but it is unsure for how long.

Government figures, released yesterday showed that the amount of jobless people in the UK rose by 164,000; the biggest rise since 1991. The figures, taken between June and August, takes the total number of unemployed to 1.79 million and raises the unemployment rate from 5.5% to 5.7%.

The figures also showed that applicants for the Jobseekers allowance rose by nearly 32,000 during September. The amount of people in work and the number of jobs available both fell between June and August, as the economic crisis shows no sign of slowing down.

In a statement from the government, they pledged to make an additional £100 million available to train workers who have lost their jobs as a result of the economic slowdown.

The Large Hadron Collider facility (LHC) sprang into life today, as scientists turned it on for the first time. Scientists are hoping that the huge underground structure, which fires beams of protons around the 27 kilometre donut shaped tunnel at the speed of light, will give a better understanding of the moments after the Big Bang.

The £5bn facility which is situated on the Swiss-French border has had a troublesome birth, being hugely over budget and two years behind schedule.

Scientists turned the system on this morning around 08:30BST and have been testing firing one beam around the tunnel. Over the coming days and weeks the scientists plan to fire multiple beams of protons in opposite directions; colliding them together at the speed of light.

It is hoped that the Large Hadron Collider will answer some fundamental questions about the universe and its beginnings.

Apple, the manufacturer of the highly fashionable iPod range is thought to be announcing new products to its range today. Just what will be unveiled is still a mystery with Apple staying tight-lipped about the announcement.

Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO and joint founder is expected to announce the new iPod models later today (Tuesday) amidst feverish speculation surrounding the new generation of iPod’s. Rumours circulating around the web include, a new version of the iPod Nano with more memory, and that both the Nano and iPod Touch will see price cuts.

Another possibility is that Apple will be showcasing its new iTunes player, iTunes 8 that will allow users to download High-Definition TV programs and transfer them to their iPod. The announcement is predicted in the next couple of hours.