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Sunday, February 7, 2010
England face Wales in Euro 2012 qualifying group
England and Wales have been drawn in the same qualifying group for Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine.
Switzerland, Bulgaria and Montenegro are the other teams in Group G following the draw in Warsaw. Scotland were paired with holders Spain and the Czech Republic, Northern Ireland face Italy, while the Republic of Ireland are in Russia's group.
There are 14 places available alongside the co-hosts for the tournament which runs from 8 June to 1 July.
England manager Fabio Capello said his team had been drawn in one of the two toughest groups, despite avoiding tricky second seeds such as Turkey, Sweden and Serbia.
Switzerland, who topped their group to qualify for World Cup 2010, are 18th in Fifa's world rankings, while Bulgaria are 30th and Montenegro 72nd.
England last played Wales back in 2005 in a World Cup qualifier, claiming a 1-0 win in Cardiff.
"All four opponents are really dangerous," Capello said. "Wales will be my first derby as manager of an international team. It will be interesting. They are really young but the value of the players is high.
"I prefer a smaller group because we have less games but the group is very tough.
"Switzerland qualified for the World Cup, they are one of the best teams. I remember when I played against them it was not easy to win away.
"I have big confidence in my team and I am sure we will play a fantastic qualifying tournament for 2012."
Wales last qualified for the finals of a major championship at the 1958 World Cup, but they did reach the quarter-finals of the European Championship in 1976 when the tournament was decided on a knockout basis.
"Without doubt, drawing England will please all the Welsh fans - plenty of history there and we like nothing better than another chance against the old enemy," said Wales manager John Toshack.
"I know Fabio Capello quite well, so will look forward to being able to pit our talents against a powerful England team later in the year."
Scotland's group presents a daunting first challenge for new manager Craig Levein, who revealed in the build-up to the draw that he would love to face England.
As well as top-ranked Spain and the Czechs, the Tartan Army also face trips to Liechtenstein and Lithuania.
"It's exciting, especially with Spain coming out of the hat," said Levein.
"I am pretty sure that the Scotland fans will be looking forward to Spain coming to Hampden and to a little holiday over there.
"It is no secret that Spain should be favourites to win the group if they play as they can but it might be easier in a five-team group to get that second place.
"We need to get some momentum between now and then, if we can do that then we are more than capable of causing problems for everyone in the group. We are in with a fighting chance."
Joining Northern Ireland in Group C are world champions Italy, World Cup qualifiers Serbia, Solvenia, Estonia and the Faroe Islands.
The Republic, cruelly denied a place in the 2010 World Cup by Thierry Henry's handball, take on the Russians, Slovakia, Macedonia, Armenia and Andorra.
Elsewhere, Euro 2000 winners France are up against Romania and Belarus, Croatia and Greece were paired together, while Portugal will take on the Scandinavian duo Norway and Denmark.
Holland, who won the European Championships in 1988, also have a difficult group with Hungary, Finland and Moldova.
The road to the finals kicks off in September through to October 2011 with the nine group winners automatically qualifying for the tournament together with the runner-up with the best overall record.
The eight other runners-up will then face play-offs over two legs in November 2011.
Poland and Ukraine will be only the third co-hosts of the European Championship, following in the footsteps of Belgium and the Netherlands in 2000 and Austria and Switzerland in 2008.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Toyota shares plummet following US pressure
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Toyota shares plummet following US pressure
Shares in Toyota have hit their lowest level for 10 months on the Tokyo Stock Exchange with continuing concern about the safety of the company's vehicles.
The world's biggest carmaker has recalled 8 million vehicles globally because of problems with defective accelerator pedals on seven models. It is also investigating reports of faulty brakes on its Prius hybrid car.
Analysts say the lost sales and repairs could cost Toyota $2bn (£1.3bn). It is due to report quarterly earnings later.
At a Congressional hearing on Wednesday, US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood alarmed both investors and consumers with the advice, which he later retracted, that owners of a recalled Toyota should "stop driving it".
He later said: "What I said in there was obviously a misstatement. What I meant to say... was if you own one of these cars or if you're in doubt, take it to the dealer and they're going to fix it."
Mr LaHood vowed that in the meantime his department would "continue to hold Toyota's feet to the fire to make sure that they are doing everything they have promised to make their vehicles safe".
He also repeated that they were studying the possibility of civil penalties against Toyota for safety violations, which could mean fines of millions of dollars.
Both he and his Japanese counterpart have ordered the company to investigate complaints of brake problems with the Prius and have not ruled out a recall.
Toyota spokeswoman Ririko Takeuchi has said it is aware of 77 complaints about the hybrid in Japan, and about 100 in the US.
Third-quarter results
A day after falling 5.7%, Toyota shares fell a further 3.5% on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Thursday morning and hit their lowest level for 10 months.
US-listed Toyota shares ended Wednesday trading down 6% or 4.69 cents to 73.49 cents, continuing the falls of recent days.
The TSE shares have now lost about 22% of their value, or some $30bn, since 21 January, when the company announced the recall of some 2.3 million vehicles in the US amid concerns that their accelerator pedals could become stuck. It is also recalling up to 1.8 million cars across Europe, including 180,865 in the UK.
The seven models being recalled in Europe are the Aygo, iQ, Yaris, Auris, Corolla, Verso, and Avensis, and cover manufacturing dates going back to February 2005. In the US, they are the RAV4, Corollas, Matrix, Avalons, Camrys, Highlander, Tundra, and Sequoia, and cover dates going back to October 2005.
The parts needed to repair the cars will not arrive in the UK until next week, with the first repairs scheduled for Wednesday. Toyota says the process, which should only be carried out by its dealers, takes around half an hour.
The carmaker said it was not aware of any accidents resulting from the issue and that only 26 incidents involving accelerator pedals had been reported in Europe.
Last year, Toyota was forced to recall about 5 million cars worldwide over problems with floor mats trapping pedals.
All eyes are now on its third-quarter results announcement later in Tokyo, at which it is widely expected to reduce what most analysts deemed an excessively conservative operating loss forecast of $3.85bn.
Before Toyota expanded the vehicle recalls last month, analysts had expected a return to profits in the next financial year. Toyota Kata: Managing People for Improvement, Adaptiveness and Superior Results
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Nokia navigation software downloads reach one million
One million people downloaded Nokia's free navigation software during the first week of its launch, the company claims.
Ovi Maps have been downloaded 1.4m times overall since the application became available on January 21 2010. It has been most popular in China, Italy, the UK, Germany and Spain
The service provides different direction information for drivers and pedestrians in 74 countries and 46 different languages.
"We're averaging a download a second, 24 hours a day," said Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia's executive vice president.
He added that the demand for location-based software was growing more quickly than the company had anticipated.
Research by Strategy Analytics suggests that Nokia has 39% of the global smartphone market.
Both Nokia and Google now offer free-to-download navigation services, which is putting pressure on the sat-nav industry.
Dutch satellite company Nav4All announced that it is shutting down after its contract with Nokia subsidiary Navteq, a digital mapping company, was not renewed. Agenda4us for Nokia 9200 Series
Sunday, January 31, 2010
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