The UK’s Teesside Cast Products (TCP) plant, which was mothballed last February and cost 1,600 jobs, is at the centre of sell-off discussions between its owners Corus, part of India’s Tata Steel Ltd, and Thailand’s Sahaviriya Steel Industries Plc. (SSI).  SSI reported Friday that it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding to acquire the North of England plant for some £320 million ($500 million). Announcing the news in the UK, Corus MD Kirby Adams told reporters:

Gerald Green (78) and his wife Patricia Green (58) were yesterday sentenced to six months imprisonment and ordered to serve six months' home detention and pay back 250,000 US dollars by a Los Angeles Court. The sentence follows the couple’s conviction in September for their part in the 1.8 million US dollars conspiracy to bribe the former governor of the Thailand Tourism Authority to allow them to run the Bangkok International Film Festival.

Microsoft, makers of the world’s most popular computer operating system, has recently released a ‘critical’ security update in response to a ‘bug’ which seriously compromises an infected machines security. Designed to infect computers ‘shortcuts’, which allow users set up quick access to their programmes, the bug allows attackers to take over control of the machine on which the bug has been installed.

Research In Motion (RIM), the company behind the BlackBerry is facing a problem from both the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, both of which have recently announced their intention to close down some Blackberry mobile services. National security has been quoted by both states as the reason for their actions. Users of the BlackBerry in the UAE will be barred from accessing email, web browsing and instant messaging from October this year. Up to 500,000 users of the Blackberry are at risk of losing these functions if the proposal goes ahead as planned.