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34-year-old Mr Horie says he was singled out

Takafumi Horie was a brash young internet entrepreneur.

A standard bearer for the “new Japan”, who was brought down, he claims, by the conservative forces of the “old Japan” - the Japanese business establishment.

In January 2006, prosecutors raided the offices of his company, Livedoor.

As the news helicopters circled overhead, he was led away for questioning and what turned out to be a lengthy confinement ahead of his trial.

The shock waves were huge.

Mr Horie liked to style himself as a pioneer of a bold new style of Japanese capitalism.

This very public shaming of the popular dotcom mogul led to panic in the financial markets.

Japan’s Stock Exchange had to be shut down.

Its systems could not cope as thousands of investors, who had been inspired by Mr Horie, tried to take their money out of the market.

Appeal likely

Mr Horie was charged and tried for falsifying Livedoor’s accounts for one financial year and for spreading false information to the market during a deal in 2004.

On Friday, he will hear whether or not the court believed his denials.

If found guilty, he could go to prison for five years.

Securing an interview with Mr Horie is not easy.

His lawyers demand the right to check every quote used.

They need to be careful, they argue, that everything he says is accurately reported, in case it is used as evidence at a later date.

Whatever happens on Friday, they argue, there is likely to be an appeal.

Value judgement

The man himself is in combative mood as he sits in his lawyers’ office defending himself against the prosecutors’ charges.

The Horie affair reversed, to a certain extent, the trend to give larger responsibilities to young people Yoko Fukumoto, Mainichi Shimbun

He denies that he spread false information to the money markets.

“Our claim is that what we did is not illegal,” he tells the BBC News website.

“In simple terms, they accuse us of saying that a company is worth 400m yen, when it is actually worth only 100m yen. Well, who decides that company is worth just 100m yen in the first place?”

On the second count of falsifying accounts, his explanation is less clear-cut.

He admits that some manipulation of the company’s books did take place, although he denies it was to the extent that the prosecutors allege.

However, he is clear that it was not done with his knowledge.

Whereas other staff members have admitted wrongdoing, Mr Horie insists that there is no evidence to prove that he was told about it or consented to the practice.

“I trusted my staff, and if they told me those were the sales figures, there was no reason for me to think they were made up,” he says.

“That’s the reason why there are audits. If the professional auditors couldn’t detect it, how could non-professional people detect it? I am not responsible.”

Despondent youth

Mr Horie insists he was the victim of malice and that prosecutors, acting on a tip-off, targeted him because they wanted to make an example of him.

I don’t regret anything, but I don’t want to be arrested again Takafumi Horie

“When you are famous, some people get jealous and grass you up,” he insists.

“They offer biased information.”

Throughout the interview, Mr Horie’s argument seems not to be that his business practices were whiter than white, but that he was singled out, because of his fame, for punishment for activities that go on throughout the Japanese business world.

Commentators argue that to many younger entrepreneurs, the downfall of Mr Horie, who represented an alternative to the traditional role of the “salaryman”, has led to disappointment.

“The Horie affair reversed, to a certain extent, the trend to give larger responsibilities to young people,” argues Yoko Fukumoto, business correspondent of the Mainichi Shimbun.

“It has given the younger generation a sense of despondency, making them feel that the law is not applied fairly in this society.”

Conservative cooking

Martin Schulz from the Fujitsu Research Institute agrees that “outsiders” such as Mr Horie, who look for opportunities in Japan’s markets, are often labelled as potential violators of loopholes.

But he believes the regulators are becoming more active in preventing and punishing fraud.

“In the future, corporate scandals won’t be solved by bowing deeply any more,” he says.

Patrick Mohr, a strategist at Nikko Citigroup, thinks the Horie case will at the very least make companies more wary of the temptation to “cook the books” in future.

“This case, as well as the numerous accounting and bid-rigging cases which have come to light recently, appear to be sending a very strong message to boardrooms across the country that it is best to err on the side of conservatism when it comes to accounting regulations,” says Mr Mohr.

Not so hard

So as Mr Horie awaits his fate, what lessons has he learnt?

“Trying too hard increases your risk of being accused of wrongdoing,” he says. “I don’t regret anything, but I don’t want to be arrested again.

“I don’t ever want to go back to that detention centre,” he says. “To avoid that, I must not try so hard.”

It is hard to know whether or not he really means it.

My suspicion is Mr Horie is being ironic.

Clearly he is still bitter about what he sees as a society where those who rock the boat are slapped down.

Mr Horie is not giving up.

Whatever the result on Friday, he feels he’s not finished yet.

The slimming drugs curb appetite The illicit availability of appetite suppressant pills online is fuelling a slimming obsession and putting lives at risk, experts warn. The United Nations drug control board says a growing number of women desperate to lose weight are buying these drugs on the internet. The warnings come after the death of 21-year-old anorexic Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston. She is believed to have been taking slimming pills and painkillers. We need to know the size of the problem in the UK Professor Hamad Ghodse, former president of the INCB The UN ’s International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) calls for stricter enforcement of control measures and public education campaigns about the risks from the misuse of prescription drugs, including painkillers and tranquillisers. Their abuse has already outstripped that of heroin and cocaine in some parts of the world, says its report. President of the INCB, Dr Philip Emafo explained that appetite suppressant drugs, also known as anorectics, have a use in the treatment of life-threatening obesity when prescribed and monitored by doctors. “However, they are instead being used indiscriminately to feed the slimming obsession that affects some societies.” Growing trade The scale of the problem is not clear. Last year, a study found more than half of 1,230 UK women surveyed by Closerdiets.com admitted using slimming pills. There are 14 different appetite suppressants that have been developed to treat obesity and other conditions, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and narcolepsy. Professor Hamad Ghodse, former president of the INCB and chairman of addiction psychiatry at London’s St George’s Hospital, said: “We need to know the size of the problem in the UK. “We think probably in the UK there are adequate regulations in place, but there needs to be the implementation of these regulations.” Dr Emafo said: “It is important for consumers to realise that what they think is a cut-price medication bought on an unregulated market may however have potentially lethal effects whenever the consumed drugs are not the genuine product or are taken without medical advice. “Instead of healing, they can take lives.” The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said the global availability of counterfeit medicine had increased in recent years, through unregulated web sites operating on the internet. A spokesman said that in the past 12 month, the MHRA had taken action against 30 web sites illegally supplying medicines, including counterfeits.

A drill will be used to extract samples of the exposed mantle Scientists are to sail to the mid-Atlantic to examine a massive “open wound” on the Earth’s surface.Dr Chris MacLeod, from Cardiff University, said the Earth’s crust appeared to be completely missing in an area thousands of kilometres across. The hole in the crust is midway between the Cape Verde Islands and the Caribbean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The team will survey the area, up to 5km (3 miles) under the surface, from ocean research vessel RRS James Cook. The ship is on its inaugural voyage after being named in February. Dr MacLeod said the hole in the Earth’s crust was not unique, but was recognised as one of the most significant. He said it was an “open wound on the surface of the Earth”, where the oceanic crust, usually 6-7km thick (3.7-4.3 miles), was simply not there. The crust does not seem to be repairing itself Dr Chris MacLeod Monitor the voyage online “Usually the plates are pulled apart and to fill the gap the mantle underneath has to rise up. As it comes up it starts to melt. That forms the magma,” he said. “That’s the normal process. Here it has gone awry for some reason. “The crust does not seem to be repairing itself.” Dr MacLeod said the research could lead to a “new way of understanding” the process of plate tectonics. The scientist will test theories he developed after visiting the area in 2001 - including the possibility the missing crust was caused by a “detachment fracture”. “Effectively it’s a huge rupture - one side is being pulled away from the other. It’s created a rupture so big it’s actually pulled the entire crust away. A rock called serpentinite is exposed at the surface “We also think the mantle did not melt as much as usual and that the normal amount of mantle was not produced.” As a result, the mantle is exposed to seawater, creating a rock called serpentinite. The survey voyage, costing $1m (£510,000), will be led by marine geophysicist Professor Roger Searle, from Durham University. Dr Bramley Murton, from the University of Southampton, is the third expert taking part. They will set sail from Tenerife on Monday and return in April. The team intends to use sonar to build up an image of the seafloor and then take rock cores using a robotic seabed drill developed by the British Geological Survey in conjunction with Dr MacLeod.

Abrams said the new film would “chart its own course” The 11th Star Trek film, to be directed by Lost creator JJ Abrams, will be released in the US on Christmas Day 2008, Paramount Pictures has announced.The film, which will focus on the early lives of Captain James T Kirk and Mr Spock, will begin shooting this autumn. No further details have been announced and the movie has yet to be cast. But Abrams - who directed the third Mission: Impossible film last year - said he wanted “to make a picture for life-long fans and the uninitiated”. “Needless to say I am honoured and excited to be part of this next chapter of Star Trek,” he added. ‘Brilliance and optimism’ The original Star Trek TV series, created by Gene Roddenberry, ran from 1966 to 1969. It went on to spawn 10 feature films, numerous spin-offs and a billion-dollar industry of books, computer games and consumer products. PREVIOUS TREK FILMS The Motion Picture (1979) The Wrath of Khan (1982) The Search for Spock (1984) The Voyage Home (1986) The Final Frontier (1989) The Undiscovered Country (1991) Generations (1994) First Contact (1996) Insurrection (1998) Nemesis (2002) The last Trek film, Star Trek: Nemesis, was released in 2002 and featured the stars of the Next Generation TV series. The most recent TV spin-off, Star Trek: Enterprise, came to an end in 2005. The latest feature, which has yet to be named, will tell of Kirk and Spock’s first meeting at Starfleet Academy and their first outer space mission. Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, who worked with Abrams on Mission: Impossible III, have written the screenplay. “If there’s something I’m dying to see, it’s the brilliance and optimism of Roddenberry’s world brought back to the big screen,” said Abrams. “Alex and Bob wrote an amazing script that embraces and respects Trek canon but charts its own course.” Paramount Pictures chairman and CEO Brad Grey said he “could not be more thrilled to be back in business with JJ Abrams”. As well as directing the film, Abrams will co-produce with Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof.

Beckham released three Spice Girls albums and had one of her own Ex-Spice Girl Victoria Beckham is to star in a fly-on-the-wall documentary about her forthcoming move to the US after signing a £10m deal with NBC.The programme will “look inside her world”, her spokeswoman confirmed, but will not feature her footballer husband David, or their three sons. The former England captain transfers to Los Angeles Galaxy this summer. The 32-year-old was known as Posh Spice during her time with the group, who released their last single in 2000. Last month she described the move to the US - which will reportedly earn her husband $250m (£127m) over five years - as “really exciting”. She said it was a decision which had been “thought about carefully”. “I’m really looking forward to making new friends and enjoying the sunshine in California,” she wrote on her website. Beckham’s spokeswoman said that the precise details of the series were still to be finalised, and gave no timescale for transmission.

The artificial tooth will contain a reservoir which will release the drug Forgetting to take medicine may be a thing of the past as researchers close in on creating an artificial tooth which automatically releases medicine.The Intellidrug device is small enough to fit inside two artificial molars in the jaw, the Engineer journal said. European Commission researchers also believe it will benefit patients, such as those with diabetes and high blood pressure, who need doses in the night. If human trials prove successful, the device could be available in 2010. It is important for some conditions that there is a constant level of drug in the blood Dr Thomas Velten, researcher Dr Thomas Velten, from the Frauhofer Institute for Biomedical Technology in Germany, one of the 15 research bodies involved in the project, said: “It is important for some conditions that there is a constant level of drug in the blood. “With this system, we can time the dosage to take place - even when the patient is sleeping. “We can easily adjust the dosage in line with the patient’s needs, dependent on sex or weight.” Intellidrug works by holding the drug in tablet form in a reservoir. The implant is held in place through a combination of clips and dental fixative. Reservoir Once in place, saliva in the mouth enters the reservoir via a membrane and dissolves the solid drug, forming a solution. When the system is triggered by the electrical timing mechanism, a valve opens and allows a controlled amount of the solution to flow into the mouth where it is absorbed into the body. The device is fitted with two sensors. The first is a fill-level sensor that measures the concentration of the drug in the reservoir. It alerts the patient when the concentration of the drug falls below a certain level. At the moment enough medication can be contained for up to two weeks. The second sensor monitors how much drug solution has been administered and a remote control allows the doctor to increase the dose of medication if necessary. Matt Griffiths, prescribing and medicines manager adviser at the Royal College of Nursing, said: “Cost is an issue as to whether this would become widely available, but there is a cost benefit to improving medicines concordance. “About 50% of people with chronic conditions do not take their medicines correctly and that in turn costs the health service money.”

With a growing demand for a better browsing experience on our mobiles, there is, according to the industry, demand for Web 2.0 on the go.

Vodafone users can now access YouTube and MySpace

While text blogging on a mobile is still seen as a minority sport, the explosion of camera and videophones now allows us to upload pictures and videos to our homepages. It is something that is already extremely popular on the successful South Korean social network Cyworld.

The social networking craze has seen phone manufacturers, network operators and big internet names announce various tie-ins to give users access to their own content.

Yahoo’s mobile internet service now incorporates built-in access to photo-sharing site Flickr. Other deals include Vodafone’s tie-in with both MySpace and YouTube, which will allow customers to access, edit and post to their MySpace pages and upload videos to YouTube.

Newbay is a company that provides mobile networks with servers and back-end support for picture and video uploads. They have seen their mobile traffic triple in the last year.

“Blogging on the internet is different from blogging on the mobile,” said Newbay’s chief executive Paddy Holahan. “The mobile user is more likely to take a picture or a video and upload it, because he’s got a cameraphone in his hands. The internet blogger is more likely to type because he’s got a keyboard in his hand.

“When you give people buttons, they press them, and it’s a different experience. Mobile tends to be much more about your lifestyle; internet blogging tends to be much more about your opinions, politics, things like that.”

Bandwidth issues

Mobile phones are not the best way to access the net.

So, whether it is pictures, opinion or general video buffoonery, the process for uploading your content is often quite complicated. And even with 3G, your top data transfer rate is 384 kilobits per second, which means your upload could take a while.

Second Life has a population of more than 1.5 million

“The bandwidth issue is basically an issue of quality and speed,” said Mr Holahan. “The better the bandwidth, the better the quality image or video you can upload in a short time.

“People will generally wait 10 to 20 seconds to upload something at whatever quality that allows you to do, but they’re not going to wait for one or two minutes for something that should be a snap or a snippet.

“One of the key things we do is turn the uploading experience into a one-click experience. At the moment you may have to go through 10 or 15 clicks just to upload a single picture, and in our opinion for every click you halve the usage.”

But just as many of us are getting to grips with moblogging and video uploading, the idea of Web 2.0 has moved on. The virtual world Second Life currently seems to represent the cutting edge of the concept, populated as it is by user-generated characters, buildings and businesses.

Bridge between worlds

IBM’s private Second Life play area is a kind of “thought lab” where, amongst the bizarre constructions, the company is trying out methods to combine Web 2.0 and mobile devices in a more homogenous way.

IBM’s master inventor Zygmunt Lozinski explained his vision does not simply involve accessing Second Life from your phone - it involves using your mobile as a bridge between the virtual world and the real world.

People used to talk about service anytime, anywhere - it shouldn’t matter if that’s a real or a virtual anywhere. Zygmunt Lozinski, IBM

“You have a group of people who use virtual environments like Second Life, and they interact within those environments using tools like instant messaging and chat. But what would happen if you could connect people and objects in a virtual world to real world communication networks? To your mobile phone, to phones at home?

“So for example, you can make your avatar ring a bell, like in a hotel lobby, and that would send a message to the owner of that area, to their mobile phone, to say ‘there’s somebody who’s interested in talking to you’. Because obviously you can’t spend your entire life in a virtual shop hanging around waiting for someone to stop by and buy something.

“You can then see a photo of the avatar who’s calling you. You can then record a video with your mobile, and send that back so your potential customer can see that video being played to them on a video wall in the virtual world.”

In effect, IBM’s model removes the need for people to exist within a virtual world.

“If you’re travelling you may not always have good enough connectivity to interact with people in a virtual world, even if you need to. People can communicate irrespective of whether they’re in the virtual or real worlds,” said Mr Lozinski.

“People used to talk about service anytime, anywhere - it shouldn’t matter if that’s a real or a virtual anywhere.”

Turkey will be the sixth largest economy in Europe within a decade, the Turkish Prime Minister said.

ANKARA - Issues such as the Cyprus dispute have nothing to do with Turkey’s European Union accession process but are being used to slow down Turkey’s membership bid, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday night.

Some countries are using the Cyprus dispute due to their own domestic political issues, Erdogan told EU ambassadors at a dinner he hosted in Ankara. “This is a wrong and unjust approach,” he said.

“The Cyprus problem has been on the United Nations’ agenda for more than 40 years,” said Erdogan. “The problem should be solved under the auspices of the UN. When Turkey signed the adjustment (additional) protocol, it was believing that the European Council would stay committed to the decision reached on April 26th, 2004 to end isolation of Turkish Cypriots. However, the EU has not implemented this decision in the last two years. And this caused the problem related with implementation of the adjustment protocol. We expect the EU to fulfil its obligations and end isolation of Turkish Cypriots.”

The potential of the dynamic and growing Turkish economy cannot be ignored, Erdogan said, predicting that Turkey would be the sixth largest economy in Europe in ten years with a gross national product around 800 billion Euro.

With energy security having become one of the main issues for Europe, Erdogan said that Turkey has become a terminal for energy shipment, especially transportation of natural gas.

“Therefore, our membership is important for taking energy transfer to EU countries under guarantee,” he said.