Trio guilty of cheating in Millionaire trial

An army major, his wife, and a college lecturer have all been found guilty of cheating their way to the top prize on TV show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.

The jury at Southwark Crown Court decided that Major Charles Ingram, his wife Diana and Tecwen Whittock had worked together by coughing to trick the programme.

Click here for our guide on what happens when you break the law
Eighteen months ago, Major Charles Ingram was in the chair being quizzed by host Chris Tarrant.

Tecwen Whittock, the cougher

His wife Diana was in the audience, while Tecwen Whittock was one of the other contestants behind the major waiting to play.

As the Major read out the four options for the right answer, Whittock would cough when he reached the right one.

Staff noticed the coughing

At the trial, Chris Tarrant said he'd been concentrating so hard on the show that he hadn't noticed that there was a pattern of coughing.

But other staff had, and they contacted the police.

After hearing all the information on what happened, the jury have decided all three were guilty.

Quiz show host Chris Tarrant
Major and Diana Ingram lost the million and have been ordered to pay a £15,000 fine and £10,000 for the cost of the trial.

Whittock has been given a £10,000 fine and ordered to pay £7,500 in costs.

The Ingrams also got an 18 month suspended sentence, and Whittock a 12 month suspended sentence.

That means that unless they get into trouble with the police again over the next two years, they won't go to jail.

WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE?

If you've ever dreamed of living like a millionaire and you're not above a good old fashioned snoop then join Inside Out's Chris Packham and domestic goddess Rita Konig as they find out how the other half lives.

Inside Out has selected three properties for our snooping duo to inspect and with nearly half of the UK's millionaire's living in the South, we had plenty to choose from.

House number one
This property looks like it's been airlifted straight out of the Algarve or as Rita would describe 'Eldorado'.

It has eight bedrooms, and an indoor pool where many parties end up.

"Whenever we have friends around we always end up in the jacuzzi or the pool," explains Rita.

"Some of the parties are pretty risqué," adds Chris

"It's an extremely original property," says Rita.

If the converted pulpit bar serving 'holy spirits' didn't grab you, then take a look at the next property on the list.

House number two

Description: Regency terraced house
Location: Seafront, Brighton
Owners: Charles Style a property developer
Price: £3.5 million
House number two
This property is one of the finest townhouses outside of London and is described by Rita as "Architecturally flawless."

Some of the owner's choice in décor didn't quite grab her though.

"The dining room is slightly muddled," warns Rita.

" I think sometimes people think they have to go for a mad colour and everything will be fine. You have to be quite careful."

So if you just couldn't live with the grape dining room walls then fear not, there is still one more property left to view.

House number three
"The house was built in the early 60s and was designed to take maximum advantage of the views," explains Lee.

House number three

Description: Unique waterside residence
Location: Beaulieu, New Forest
Owners: Lee Webb
Price: £5 million
Interesting features: Stunning views of the 12 acres of landscaped grounds.
The rooms are huge and decorated in a style not unlike that of a Bond film as Rita explains.

"There are some parts that are amazing and some which don't seem to fit with the original idea. It feels quite James Bond actually."

It's such a strong flavour this house that I think it's probably quite a hard house to live in," remarks Rita.

"It's an extraordinary property."

Make your home look a million dollars
If your budget doesn't quite stretch to that of our featured properties, why not make the best of what you've got? Inside Out has some top tips to turn your home into a palace.

Make your house look a million dollars

Forget MDF, staple guns and lime green paint, the least drastic and most inexpensive way to revamp your home is to de-clutter.

To de-clutter, dispose of…

Anything in the house that has been broken for 12 months or more

Anything that has exceeded its use-by date. Use suitable disposal methods for anything that is combustible or poisonous

All wonky furniture that is surplus to your needs

Any boxes that have not been opened since your last move

Lots of junk, such as paper, glass, plastics and cans that have collected throughout your house, can be recycled and should be among the first to go
Taken from The Life Laundry: How To De-Junk Your Life by Dawna Walter and Mark Franks, published by BBC Worldwide Limited. © Talkback Productions 2002.
And who knows, a good de-clutter might unearth some hidden treasure and then you really can live like a millionaire.

The millionaire school-leavers

Prince and McQueen - different lives that led to millions

Hairdressing or plumbing skills are as likely to lead to Millionaire's Row as a university degree, rich parents or a professional career, according to a report.
The City & Guilds Vocational Rich List has pulled together Britain's wealthiest people who made their fortunes on the back of a trade qualification or apprenticeship.

The list includes mobile phone entrepreneur John Caudwell, the owner of the Phones 4U chain, and a number of well-known celebrities such as fashion designer Alexander McQueen, hairdresser John Frieda and the gardener Alan Titchmarsh.

City & Guilds, the UK's biggest vocational studies provider, suggested a firm grounding in practical skills from brick-laying to fashion can provide a direct route to riches.

VOCATIONAL TOP 10
John Caudwell, mobile phones, £840m
Trevor Hemmings, leisure and property, £480m
Jim McColl, industry (Clyde Blowers), £305m
John Frieda, hairdressing, £167m
Laurence Graff, diamonds, £157m
Jack Tordoff, car sales, £85m
Peter Dawson, truck hire, £82m
Sir Stan Clarke, racecourses and property, £80m
Robbie Cowling, internet, £75m
Kevin McDonald, industry, £75m

"What is clear is that for these individuals, a vocational qualification has been the foundation stone for extraordinary financial and commercial success," said Chris Humphries, director general at City & Guilds.

The Vocational Studies Rich List was compiled by Philip Beresford, the author of the Sunday Times Rich List.

It names Britain's top 25 so-called 'craft millionaires', who are together worth £2.7bn.

Mr Humphries said their success may inspire other school-leavers who feel their options are limited if they do not follow the traditional university or professional career route.

Phenomenal wealth

Among the wealthiest craftsmen are the leisure entrepreneur Trevor Hemmings, worth an estimated £480m, and fashion designer Karen Millen.

Ms Millen started selling shirts from her parents' house after a fashion course and now runs a chain of 50 high street stores in the UK.

Jamie Oliver has rustled up an estimated £10m.

But the top slot is held by Mr Caudwell, who quit school after a term of A levels and began his career as an apprentice at the Michelin Tyre Company. He is now worth an estimated £840m.

Catering skills proved a lucrative alternative to academia for celebrity chefs Jamie Oliver, Gary Rhodes and Gordon Ramsay.

"Far from feeling hindered by a lack of A levels or a university degree, these craft millionaires have worked hard to gain practical skills at an early age," said Mr Humphries.

"They have used (these) to their advantage in forging prolific careers and amassing phenomenal wealth."

Trading up

Mr Humphries added that the example being set by such success stories had prompted a re-think of the traditional education route.

"People are realising a degree is not an automatic passport," he told BBC News Online.

"There are greater choices that they can make which can lead to success."

School-leavers are obviously waking up to the notion of craft-based wealth.

City & Guilds has recorded a 25% rise in student numbers in the last two years and a doubling in 29-40 year olds signing up for plumbing courses.

Mr Humphries said over 50% of modern apprenticeships are being taken up by students that have the GCSE and A level grades to go on to university but choose a practical qualification instead.

"They are realising there is more choice in life," he said.

How to make a million dollars

Forget the joke about starting with $2 million. These people had better ideas. Here are nine stories -- and tips -- about making that first million.

Being a millionaire isn't what it used to be -- but it sure beats not being one. Just ask the 8.2 million U.S. households -- an all-time record -- that had a net worth of more than $1 million in 2004, excluding the value of their primary residence. That was a 33% increase over the previous year, reports a survey by TNS Financial Services.

The surge was driven mostly by consistent investing in the stock market. But there are other ways to make a million -- start a business, invest in real estate, put yourself in the right place at the right time. Kiplinger's sought out people who did all those things and more. We found that although they had taken different routes, they followed a pattern; you might call that pattern the nine habits of highly successful millionaires. And all of them had a 10th trait in common: They never lost sight of their goal.

By Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine

Millionaire hotspots pinpointed

Two areas of Edinburgh have more of Britain's most affluent people than anywhere outside Hampstead in London.

A survey by a marketing company has identified the top 100 millionaire havens around the UK.

It placed Blackhall and Morningside in second and third place in its survey, with 266 and 243 millionaires respectively.

Hazelhead in Aberdeen came joint sixth in the report with Kensington in London.

The Hazelhead area of Aberdeen was sixth in the table

In the west of Scotland, Bearsden in Glasgow was in 13th place with 155 millionaires.

No areas outside of London or Scotland appear until 14th place in the chart, which sees popular retirement spot Hove in East Sussex sharing the position with Corstorphine in Edinburgh.

Other Scots suburbs featured in the poll included Blackford Hill in Edinburgh (21st) and Newton Mearns in Glasgow (25th).

Glasgow's west end (54th), the Stockbridge area of Edinburgh Midlothian (58), south Ayr (59) parts of Perth (77th) and Killearn in Stirlingshire (81st) are also on the list.

The 'Millionaire Neighbourhood Report' was compiled by marketing and business intelligence company EuroDirect, part of the Skipton Information Group.

Not conspicuous wealth

It said there were more than 60,000 millionaires in Britain and calculated wealth using shareholder records.

London dominates the top 20, with Hampstead coming in at first place with 294 millionaires in residence.

Social commentator Roddy Martine said Edinburgh's high ranking in the survey was not a surprise.

"Edinburgh has always been known as the richest city per head of population in the UK," he said.

I can see that people who wanted to have a rather upmarket gin palace would live in Blackhall

Chris Boisseau
Estate agent

"Growing up in Edinburgh I was always conscious of the fact it was a rich city, but it was not conspicuous wealth.

"People always lived fairly modestly but you always knew the money was there."

Chris Boisseau, an estate agent with Edinburgh firm Factotum, said he thought the results of the survey were "odd".

He said: "The New Town and a bit further out in parts of Barnton tend to be where the really wealthy congregate.

"I can see that people who wanted to have a rather upmarket gin palace would live in Blackhall.

"But there are a couple of parts of Morningside which are much more millionaires' row."

Millionaire scam to become film

The story of the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? cheat scandal is to be turned into a film.
The programme's makers revealed the plan at the end of Monday's ITV1 documentary about the furore, which drew more than 15 million viewers, according to unofficial estimates.

Major Charles Ingram, who was convicted of cheating his way to the jackpot with the help of coded coughs, accused the documentary of being "an incredibly one-sided affair".

Programme makers Granada rejected Mr Ingram's suggestion, with the Tonight show's editor James Goldston saying it was "not unfairly or selectively edited in any way".

He said the documentary had been based on footage from the original recording of the show played to the jury in court.

Major Ingram told BBC One's Breakfast programme that the quiz show's makers were "greedy" and were making millions of pounds out of the scandal.

The ITV1 documentary was seen by an estimated 15.1 million people - one million more than watched the controversial exposé of Michael Jackson in February.

At the end of Monday's programme, it was revealed that the head of Millionaire's production company Celador, Paul Smith, hoped to turn the story into a blockbuster film.

Have your say: What did you think of the documentary?
Catherine Zeta Jones and Hugh Grant have already been mentioned by the press as possible stars.

Along with former college lecturer Tecwen Whittock, the Ingrams were convicted of conspiracy to cheat the programme out of £1m at the start of April.

Major Ingram revealed the couple are now £460,000 in debt after their legal battle.

They protested their innocence and said the verdict had ruined their lives in a series of BBC interviews.

"What the viewers saw last night was one of the greatest TV editing con tricks," Major Ingram told Breakfast.

He said the guilty verdict was "extremely humiliating" and had been "cataclysmic" for his family.

"The clips that were played last night were wholly unrepresentative of the environment that I was sitting within," he said.

"It is very, very unfair and it is worse, in fact, than what I had to sit through during the trial."

Programme editor James Goldston said the documentary had not been unfairly edited.

"We are sure viewers will have made up their own minds," he said.

Celador will make millions and millions of pounds out of this

Major Charles Ingram
Major Ingram said the couple had asked to be interviewed for the documentary to make it "more even-handed" - but their request was refused.

"Celador will make millions and millions of pounds out of this," he added.

He also hit back at presenter Chris Tarrant's comments that the major was "nice but dim".

"I am not thick. I am a member of Mensa, for goodness sake," he said.

"That was a very, very unfair comment and it is representative of what Celador has done. These people are the greedy people, not us."

Major Ingram was shown in the documentary answering questions to win the jackpot while Whittock was in the audience, indicating the correct answers with coughs.

Diana Ingram, seen looking anxiously in Whittock's direction, was found guilty of helping "set up" the scam.

The couple said lawyers were looking into whether they could appeal against the verdicts.

Whittock said he had been suffering from asthma
The Ingrams were sentenced to 18 months in jail suspended for two years.

Whittock received a 12-month sentence, also suspended for two years.

The couple were also fined £15,000 each and ordered to pay £10,000 costs.

Whittock was fined £10,000 with £7,500 costs.

The defence counsel argued Whittock had been suffering from hay fever and asthma.

Whittock has said he is also planning an appeal against the verdict.

ITV1's Millionaire: A Major Fraud, an edition of Tonight with Trevor McDonald, featured interviews with presenter Chris Tarrant, the show's producers and other contestants who suspected foul play.

On the documentary, Whittock's series of coughs could be heard, including one followed by the word "no" as Ingram was about to give the wrong answer.

On a number of occasions, Ingram changed his answers after coughs from Whittock persuaded him he was wrong.

Mrs Ingram could also be heard coughing on one question when her husband was asked who had a hit UK album called Born To Do It.

In a HARDtalk interview on 24th April, quiz show cheats Major Charles Ingram and his wife, Diana, tell Jon Sopel that they are unlikely to appeal against their convictions for fraud

Major Charles Ingram, his wife and accomplice Tecwen Whittock were recently convicted of cheating on the well-known British television game show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire".

Major Ingram tells Jon Sopel that his conviction is "absolutely awful".

He is critical of ITV's 'Tonight' programme about the case, which he describes as "disgraceful".

None of us cheated, there was no planning to cheat, no attempt to cheat, no scam

Major Charles Ingram

Diana Ingram says: "It was absolutely disgusting. It didn't represent what happened with the studio... It would have been far fairer and more honourable to have shown what Charles would have really heard."

One sided

Major Ingram continues: "To call it an opportunity for the public to decide is disgraceful, it was wholly and utterly one-sided and far away from what actually happened."

Jon Sopel asks the Major how he feels to be convicted for fraud. Major Charles Ingram says:

"This feels absolutely awful. None of us cheated, there was no planning to cheat, no attempt to cheat, no scam. The verdict was perverse."

Jon Sopel asks the couple if they had - mentally - begun to make plans with the money:

"We certainly had started to make plans ...we decided to put the money in the bank and think about it."

The Ingrams want to clear their names, but an appeal is unlikely

The head of Celador, Paul Smith, rang Major Ingram a few days after the programme had been recorded to say that the cheque for one million pounds would be withheld until some "irregularities" had been investigated.

Major Ingram described the telephone call as a "thunderbolt".

He said: "Afterwards I was totally gutted, but at the time I didn't think much about it ... I certainly wasn't anticipating the call ...

I was in an open plan office and didn't want to have a conversation about something as cataclysmic as that. I know that nothing happened, remember, I didn't see it as a particular problem."

With great emotion, Major Ingram reiterates claims that he is an intelligent man: "I'm not thick, by the way, I'm a member of Mensa with an IQ of 149, in the top 2% of the population."

What price honesty?

Jon Sopel asks the couple if they believe that money can buy them happiness.

Major Ingram says firmly: "What is important to me is my wife and children. Money can go some way to supporting that, they are what is important to me."

He maintains that he is innocent and denies that greed was a motive: "The real victims are the three defendants and the tax payers."

Diana Ingram underlines that it is their reputations which lie in tatters: "We're keen to clear out names and reputations, it's under review but probably unlikely."

Inside the mind of a millionaire

With a personal fortune of £115m to play with, Duncan Bannatyne enjoys his wealth safe in the knowledge that he's grafted for every penny of it.

But what is it that enables some people to find extraordinary wealth?

Well that has been the subject of a documentary which you can see on BBC Two tonight at 9pm.

You can see a preview of Mind of a Millionaire followed by an interview with Duncan Bannatyne by clickin on the link at the top of this page

There's also the expert's view from management consultant Charlie Atkinson
Duncan's story

Duncan Bannatyne is the founder and chairman of Bannatyne Leisure: the largest, private, independent gym chain in the UK, and one of the fastest growing companies.

Bannatyne Leisure has an annual turnover of £30 million and employs over 1000 staff.

Duncan started in business with a single ice cream van; he is now worth £115 million.

Recently Duncan has changed direction and is currently forging his way as a jobbing actor.

Born onto a Glasgow tenement in 1949 Duncan left school at 15 and joined the Royal Navy, leaving four years later. He headed back to the UK and 'become a millionaire'.

His success story began in 1980 when he spent £450 on an ice cream van. Within four years he had a fleet of six.

Profit from the sale of this company led to the establishment of Quality Care Homes which was floated in 1992.

Duncan sold Quality Care Homes in 1997 and invested much of the £46m he made into Bannatyne Leisure.

Personality of a Millionaire
More likely to cheat but not admit it
Will push their way to the front of an airport queue and get a better seat
Hard working and extremely focussed

So his prophecy came true, as over the course of 20 years Duncan has emerged as one of Britain's most successful entrepreneurs. Bannatyne Leisure has over 29 operational health clubs with a further 11 planned by the end of 2004.

This year Duncan was named Master Entrepreneur of the Year and Overall Entrepreneur of the Year.

He recently sold his majority shareholding in Just Learning, one of the UK's fastest growing chains nursery and childcare providers. With 27 nursery schools across the UK; Just Learning was sold to Alchemy for £22 million.

Duncan supports a variety of UK charities, especially those in his adopted hometown of Darlington.

The expert's view

Charlie Atkinson was asked to help with the documentary because they were able to identify potential talent.

Charlie's work as a management consultant involves screening for jobs, but he also does training. He says mostly, personality tests are used, but this is very dull for TV, so more practical tests were devised for the millionaires.

He says the common thread is that the millionaires don't recognize the usual social boundaries. For example, they'd cheat to win, but they wouldn't see it as cheating.

They're the sort of people who will go to the front of the queue at an airport and talk their way onto a plane or a better seat.

He says unfortunately, a lot of it comes down to graft as well. They work incredibly hard and are very focussed an willing to give up a lot to achieve their goals.

Millionaire makers develop new show

An American TV network is to team up with the British producers of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire for a new game show.
ABC will join forces with Londn-based Celador Productions on The People Versus - and interactive knowledge quiz to debut in the autumn.

The format will feature contestants answering questions from viewers. Each correct answer wil be worth £5,000 - with not limit to how much they can win.

ABC executives are expected to wait and see how it performs in the UK before scheduling the show on American TV.

Sci/Tech The 30 billion year encryption problem

A 17-year-old Kent schoolboy has spent just four weeks putting together an encryption method for computer files which could take 30 billion years to crack.

Peter Parkinson's Unbreakable Encryption program is now available over the Internet and illustrates the futility of many governments' attempts to control the use of the technology.

The United States bars the export of such strong encryption without "key recovery", the ability of a third party to unlock and decode encrypted files if, for example, they suspect criminal activity.

The UK Government also wants such keys, to be held by "trusted third parties", so that the security forces can foil paedophile rings, drug dealers and spies, among others.

Cracked it

But an English sixth former appears to have demonstrated the ease with which strong encryption without key recovery can be programmed and distributed.

His key length is 2048 bits, compared to the 40-bit "weak" encryption allowed for export by the US.

Peter says the maths means it should take 30 billion years to crack. A powerful computer built by the Electronic Frontier Foundation recently took three days to crack the American 56-bit Data Encryption Standard (DES).

The popular Pretty Good Privacy program advertises its 128-bit minimum key length as "the strongest encryption available."

Peter admits 2048-bit encryption is more than anybody needs, but it helps to sell the product.

He designed a slick Windows interface for his program and spent four weeks of after-school and weekend work putting an extra step in the encryption of each bit of the RC4 algorithm, a stream cipher technology developed by America's RSA Data Security.

Good maths not required

"I'm not really very good at maths, I got a B in the GCSE," he said. "But this has to be done by a programmer, though they say it's good if you have a basis in maths."

The program was first released under his own name, CIPHERTech, four months ago. But a US-based online software sales company, Atlantic Coast, has since snapped it up, paying Peter a lump sum rather than a commission on sales.

"Now I'm programming an accounts package for them called Fastcheck. I would like to carry on working with them, they keep phoning me up with little projects."

Peter operates out of his bedroom at home in Maidstone, Kent, and plans to set up a registered company when he is 18, although he still wants to continue his education.

"I'm taking Further Maths, Physics and Geography and would like to go to university to study Geography, not to fart around with computers.

"I'm making more than just pocket money right now, but I'm not going to be a millionaire."

By BBC Internet correspondent Chris Nuttall

Club confirms takeover complete

Cumbrian construction millionaire Fred Story has completed his takeover of Carlisle United Football Club.

The announcement means the club has now severed all ties with former owner, John Courtenay.

In a statement on Wednesday, the recently relegated club said negotiations between the two men had been "amicable".

Mr Storey, 47, has warned fans not to expect him to plough money into the struggling Conference club.

The club statement, posted on its website, said: "Carlisle United are very pleased to announce that Fred Story has now taken full ownership of the club following the completion of the purchase of the club from Mr John Courtenay.

Business footing

"Negotiations have been amicable between the two parties and nothing untoward has come to light other than the legacies that remain from the Knighton era.

"Mr Story would like to personally place on record his sincere thanks to John Courtenay for all the dedication, hard work, passion and finance he gave the football club during his two years as owner.

"Fred Story and the board of directors will continue the good work of John Courtenay in bringing stability to Carlisle United and setting the club on a sound business footing and look forward to a long and successful future under the new ownership."

Earlier, Mr Storey said: "I'm not here to knock the ground down and build houses, and there are no plans to relocate.

"However, I won't be funding the club out of my own pocket - that's up to local businesses to get behind us."

Americas: Millionaire gives away his fortune

An 83-year-old American millionaire who gave money to people who wrote to his newspaper column with their sob stories, says he has now given away his fortune.

Percy Ross, from Minneapolis, started his 'Thanks a Million' column 17 years ago and has handed out between $20 and $30m.

He received up to 10,000 letters a week, and paid for everything from recreation centres to organ transplants.

I've achieved my goal. I've given it all away," he wrote in his farewell column. "You've given me so much over the years. In many respects, I'm far richer today than when I started."

'Thanks a Million' ran in about 800 newspapers across the USA, from major dailies to rural weeklies.

Mr Ross's editor, Nancy Webber, said he was not penniless but had given away more money than he had planned - as he lived longer than he expected.

In a recent letter, a 26-year-old woman whose teeth had turned grey because she had the eating-disorder bulimia, asked him for $1,400 for dental work.

Taken for granted

"You're willing to make changes because your past lifestyle wasn't healthy. And, you're willing to meet me halfway. Why on God's green earth wouldn't I be willing to help you?" Mr Ross replied, enclosing a cheque for $700.

But the philanthropist rebuked those he felt took him for granted.

When a prisoner asked him for money so she could buy her son a computer, he refused.

But she wrote back in complaint: "I tried to believe that there are white people who care, only to find the truth staring me in the face."

"Talk about being disappointed!" Mr Ross replied. "Anyone who can promise a child you'll get him a new computer through this rich, white, old guy you can write to while you sit in prison is deluded beyond compare."

Mr Ross grew up in Michigan then moved to Minnesota in 1936, where he first made his fortune in fur.

His philanthropy began in the late 1970s, when he gave away more than 1,000 bicycles at a children's holiday party in Minneapolis.

The experience inspired him to start his column.

Business drive for entrepreneurs

Budding entrepreneurs in Scotland will have a chance to receive cash prizes for the best business ideas.

The competition, run by Scottish Enterprise via the Business Gateway, has been backed by Dragons' Den investor Duncan Bannatyne.

The winner, who will be chosen from the best entries across local enterprise company areas, will take away £5,000.

The competition is part of a drive by Business Gateway to help boost Scotland's business birth rate.

Linda Hanna, director of Enterprise Services at Scottish Enterprise, said: "Small businesses are really important to the economy, and not just at local level.

"The more people we can encourage to bring their ideas to the Business Gateway, the better chance we have of supporting them in growing their ventures and realising their ambitions.

"It is the small firms of today that could be the blue-chip companies of tomorrow and we need to do more to encourage that entrepreneurial spirit."

Other local winners will receive prizes of £1,000 for innovative and sustainable businesses.

Time and place for entrepreneurs

Imagine Central London has been invaded by an army of robots which are now bunkered down somewhere on Oxford Street.

Your mission, and that of your friends, is to find the shop on the capital's famous two-mile retail strip that harbours the enemy's lair.

All you have at your disposal is your ingenuity, and one of those next-generation mobile phones fitted with satellite-navigation and loaded with a gaming database that maps a fantasy universe on to real-world locations.

As you walk into specific shops, the gaming software is triggered to display audio and video items on the handsets - clues that take you to the next location.

The clock is counting down and you will have to split up to cover the ground, using the mobiles to stay in contact and exchange snippets of information.

Step forward

Fantasy but not fanciful. Gaming applications like this could become a major growth area in the next few years as entertainment companies look to exploit the new possibilities offered by satellite navigation.

THE SAT-NAV FUTURE

Navigation for navigation's sake will not drive applications
Uptake pushed forward by services that add value to data
Huge potential for internet-linked services run off mobiles
E.g. finding a restaurant and directing you to nearest ATM
Multimedia delivered to tourists' mobiles as they walk around
'Guardian angel' services will locate separated children
Possibilities are endless; mobile firms already brainstorming
Database and billing companies planning for large markets

Galileo test satellite launched
Q&A: Europe's Galileo project
Europe is in the process of building an entirely new space-borne precise timing and location network that should substantially improve the service already provided by the American-run GPS (Global Positioning System).

The Galileo network's extra satellites will make getting a fix on handsets easier and quicker, especially in urban areas; and its enhanced signal (complementary to GPS's) should also improve accuracies.

Combine this with the improved power and functionality of the latest mobile phones and you can see how consumer sat-nav applications could really jump to another level - moving beyond simple in-car route guidance.

"The mobile phone companies are interested in selling bandwidth on their phones - they want to be a data pipe," says Tim Just from Thales UK, the GPS receiver manufacturer.

"They have invested in the location technology and now they're looking to the wider market, to the entrepreneurs, to come up with the services that are location related. It could be gaming - why not?"

'Virtual companion'

The industrial, professional and academic sectors have seized on GPS and turned it into an invaluable, everyday tool; the network's data is used in a myriad of applications from timing financial transactions to measuring the speed of glaciers.

It's a massive market and it's wide open for new products

Chris Finch, EveryWhichWay
But there is a feeling that the consumer market has been underexploited so far, and is prime territory now for anyone with a bright idea and some business nous.

The evidence can be seen in the huge sales last year of in-car sat-nav units - up in the UK by more than 1,300% with 670,000 systems sold.

Inevitably, these users will want more than just smart directions that avoid the jams.

THE SAT-NAV FUTURE

Smart moves for green ideas
The future of road charging
Chris Finch certainly believes so. His company, EveryWhichWay, is developing software that would turn a car's sat-nav system into a "virtual travelling companion".

As the vehicle passed a castle on a long, dull motorway drive, the system's voice would pop up with some interesting historical information about the monument - past battles, the kings that stayed there and perhaps some ghost stories.

You can see, too, how a tourist with their sat-nav mobile might appreciate this type of "culture guidance" as they moved through the old quarter of a foreign city.

"We were aware that while the technology for identifying where you are is actually quite sophisticated, there really aren't very many good and effective consumer allocations out there," Finch told the BBC News website.

"It's a massive market and it's wide open for new products."

Proper delivery

EveryWhichWay, an Aberystwyth company, was a UK runner-up in last year's Galileo Masters, a European-wide competition that hopes to spur new enterprises across the EU bloc into thinking up new sat-nav possibilities.

The British regional winner, Richard White, is pushing forward with his idea, too - a secure, internet-based system for managing the delivery of important or high-value consignments.

Satellite-navigation is not essential to its working but knowing the precise location of a load during transit will give customers an extra level of assurance, especially if legal responsibilities are only fulfilled if the consignment reaches its intended destination.

This is the case, for example, with the disposal of waste which attracts heavy fines for dumping at unauthorised sites.

Trackerback, as the system is known, has already received strong interest from US and Middle East concerns.

"The support I've had through winning the competition has helped me focus my idea. It's also given it a tremendous lift - I can't be viewed now as a one-man band in a shed with a dog," White joked.

"People take a lot more interest in Trackerback knowing it was the UK winner of Galileo Masters."

Innovation 'trigger'

The first test satellite for Galileo was launched in December. The full system should be up and running by the end of 2010, or soon after.

It will differ from GPS, not only in the fact that it will be a civilian-run service but also in that it will offer performance guarantees.

Users can get "integrity messages", which will tell them if there are errors in the signal. This should give Galileo the added reliability to be employed in critical, safety-of-life situations - guiding buses, landing planes, and keeping vehicles on motorways the required distance apart.

The compatibility (same frequencies) and interoperability (used together or separately) with GPS and the Russian Glonass system should see sat-nav receivers get a fix in even the deepest "urban canyons".

Taken together, it should be the magnet that draws the innovators.

"It is a combination of things coming together which will be the trigger to make entrepreneurs go out and do things we haven't done before," said Richard Peckham from EADS-Astrium, one of the companies involved in constructing Galileo's first satellites.

"For some it will be the extra confidence in the signal; for some it will be accuracy; and for the mobile phone-type applications it's really going to be the extra satellites - these will give you the availability that means your customers can rely on your service."

Ten regions in nine countries across Europe are taking entries for the 2006 Galileo Masters competition.

The UK challenge is managed by the Hertfordshire Business Incubation Centre (HBic). The competition's website will close to bids on 30 June.

Investors learn to hedge their bets

Hedge funds conjure up the idea of enormously powerful financiers taking huge bets on the markets.

Traditionally backed by super-wealthy individuals, hedge funds are investment firms which specialise in complex, sometimes risky, but potentially lucrative trades of a kind that most regular investors steer well clear of.

Though not for the faint-hearted, they have become increasingly popular in the UK, attracting money even from some pension funds.

Hedge funds first came to prominence in 1992 when George Soros used the vast resources under his control to play the market.

The end result was that the British pound fell out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.

Six years later, when leading US hedge fund Long Term Capital Management collapsed, there were fears that fund managers were so influential, and so reckless, that they could destabilise the world economy.

Health warning

Sir John Banham, chairman of British leisure company Whitbread, says investors considering hedge funds need to be cautious.

Financier George Soros put hedge funds on the map
"They believe wrongly that it's a risk-free bet. It isn't," he said.

"Forty per cent of hedge funds fail in any one year, and some of the biggest ones have had the biggest failures.

"Any pension fund trustee who recommends putting their pensioners' funds into a hedge fund, and who has not read the history of Long Term Capital Management, in my view, is guilty of professional negligence."

Unfair image

Anthony Brooke, a director at Fauchier Partners, a London-based specialist fund management firm which exclusively invests in hedge funds, believes such warnings are overstated.

Fewer hedge funds have had problems over the past five years than ordinary shares.

Anthony Brooke, Fauchier Partners
He feels that the cataclysmic image the hedge fund industry suffers from in some quarters is unfair.

"It's like thinking that the only sorts of shares are shares like Marconi or Enron, where things have gone disastrously wrong," he says.

"You're therefore painting all shares to have the same quality, and as we know that is absolutely not true.

"A very, very small number of them have had problems, but I think one could argue that fewer hedge funds have had problems over the past five years than ordinary shares.

In fashion

In recent years, hedge funds have started to proliferate.

The catalyst for their renewed popularity was a steep fall in the stock market four years ago.

Investors lost faith for a while in ordinary stock market investments and started to look for alternative strategies.

Hedge funds - which, thanks to their aggressive trading strategies can make money even when markets are falling - quickly caught their eye.

Now, a new generation of hedge fund managers have come up with exotic ways to look after other peoples' money.

They range from investments in fine art to complex financial strategies.

Some hedge funds specialise in commodities such as crops and metals. Others try to make money out of arbitrage - spotting that an investment can be worth more if it is bought in one market place and sold in another.

Almost all hedge funds are based in offshore centres, where regulation and supervision is light.

Walking the walk

But hedge fund managers argue that investors can take comfort from an important fact: If the fund loses money, so will the manager, because he or she almost always invests in his or her own fund.

"The first question that a lot of investors are asking is how much of your wealth is in your own funds?" says one fund manager.

"It's insurance for them that we are going to try and work the best, because our own money is involved."

Hedge funds are very much in vogue in the investment world.

Some might say dot.coms were the last big fashion, and they ended in tears.

Hedge funds, however, have as many fans as critics.

And it's increasingly likely that at least part of your pension pot, if you have one, will be invested in a hedge fund.

How much money should you borrow?

When you apply for a mortgage or remortgage, many lenders will calculate the size of loan they offer you by multiplying your income by a set amount.

These days you can borrow more, says Andrew Montlake

If you're applying for a mortgage on your own, for instance, they will usually lend around 3 to 3.5 times your gross annual income - hence the 'multiple' bit.

If, on the other hand, you're applying for a mortgage with someone else, they'll typically lend either 2.5 times your joint income, or 3 times the larger income plus 1 times the second income.

So, by way of example, if you earn £50,000 a year and your partner takes home £30,000 annually, and you're applying for a mortgage on a joint basis, many lenders will offer you in the region of either £200,000 (2.5 times £80,000) or £180,000 (3 times £50,000 + £30,000).

Basic earnings

It's worth pointing out that gross annual income is generally deemed to be your basic salary plus any guaranteed bonuses.

For many people, this is perfectly acceptable as they earn a basic salary only and have no bonuses or commission to take into account.

However some people earn a low basic salary but actually earn double or triple that amount via commission that is not guaranteed (let's say you're an estate agent, recruitment consultant, or work in advertising sales).

Income multiples clearly work against them, as lenders will often only look at the guaranteed chunk of their income.

Higher and higher

In recent years there has been a clear trend towards higher multiples, in some cases as much as 7.5 times annual salary (although 4 to 5 times salary is more common).

Lenders are currently offering larger multiples

This is mainly because interest rates, since the late nineties, have been consistently low and much less volatile.

In short, lenders feel the threat of borrowers being overstretched by sudden interest rate rises is significantly lower these days.

So they are happy to lend more than they would have done 10-15 years ago when interest rates were higher and the climate less stable.

Of course, low interest rates also mean mortgages are cheaper to repay, meaning there is less chance of borrowers defaulting, even on bigger loans.

The availability of longer fixed rate periods, from five to sometimes 25 years, is another reason why lenders are currently offering larger multiples, as there can be no ugly surprises for borrowers in the form of sharp increases in their repayments.

What sort of job?

In some cases, the type of employment you are in can also result in a bigger loan offer.

For example, if the lender feels the borrower has strong future earnings potential or will not struggle with the repayments because they are in very secure employment, they will tend to be more 'generous' with their multiples.

Doctors, accountants and solicitors fall into this category.

Lenders may also offer a higher multiple if the borrower puts down a bigger deposit, as they are seen as less of a risk.

However, consumer bodies stress that borrowers should always be extremely cautious when considering higher multiples because the repayments, relative to net monthly income, can be sizeable.

And if interest rates rise, the repayments will too if you've opted for a variable rate mortgage.

Thing of the past

Over the past few years, some of the big lenders have started to turn their backs on income multiples, which they see as crude and simplistic.

Income multiples will soon be a "thing of the past"

Instead, they are using a new criterion called 'affordability'.

This is considered to be a far more sophisticated and responsible approach to mortgage lending.

One high street lender even went so far recently as to announce that income multiples will soon be a "thing of the past".

Rather than apply a multiple to the applicant's gross annual salary, it sets out to determine the disposable income the applicant will have after all the other essential monthly spends and outgoings.

For example, as well as loan commitments, the lender will look at other areas of essential spending such as:

travel and transport costs.
food budgets.
council tax.
insurance premiums.
monthly credit card bills.
whether you have children living with you (with all the associated costs!).
the different types of household bills you are liable to pay.

With this knowledge, the lender gets a far clearer picture of what applicants can realistically afford to spend on repayments each month.

Overtime and bonuses

More positively, lenders may also take into account any regular overtime and commissions, even if not 'guaranteed' (a collective sigh of relief from all advertising sales executives).

What if someone has a gross annual salary of £30,000, but has, say, £5,000 in credit card debts, spends £250 a month on loan repayments and £100 a month on travel costs?

That person would be offered a smaller mortgage than an applicant with the same salary but no debts and travel costs.

In this sense, it's clear that people without debt will benefit most from the affordability-based approach, particularly if they are single with no dependants.

In many cases, they will be able to secure a mortgage far bigger than they would have using the income multiples system, allowing them to buy homes previously beyond their price range.

Of course, other people, for example, a derivatives trader with a hefty basic salary but equally hefty outgoings (think Ferraris, Chateau Petrus and Bachelor pads) would be better off with the traditional income multiple approach.

To each his own!

The opinions expressed are those of the author and are not held by the BBC unless specifically stated. The material is for general information only and does not constitute investment, tax, legal or other form of advice. You should not rely on this information to make (or refrain from making) any decisions. Always obtain independent, professional advice for your own particular situation.

MONEY TALK
Andrew Montlake
Partner, Cobalt Capital

EBay Buys Ticket Site StubHub for $310 million

EBay announced Thursday it will acquire ticket selling site StubHub for about $310 million in cash.

The auction giant said the deal is expected to close in the first quarter of this year. EBay said it will offer to discuss the impact of the acquisition on its financial guidance in its quarterly earnings conference call on January 24.

StubHub started in 2000, designed to match buyers and sellers of tickets for live sports and entertainment events, within the boundaries of anti-scalping laws in force in most states. EBay said the acquisition will help to strengthen its own online ticket offerings. The move also eliminates a strong competitor in the online ticket resale sector.

From Steven Schwankert, IDG News Service

Course teaches eBay selling

Reeds Spring The popular course "Learn How to Sell on eBay the Right Way" will be held twice this month.
Courses are scheduled from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Jan. 23 and from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Jan. 30 at Tri-Lakes Telecommunication Community Resource Center, located in the south wing of Reeds Spring High School on Missouri 413.

"The course will include opening an eBay and PayPal account, how to research listings, photo techniques, setting a selling price and more," said Tom Keohan, a business development specialist with the University of Missouri Extension. "During the last session, participants will be able to photograph and post an actual item to list for sale on eBay."

Registration cost is $80, which includes a student guide and other handouts if received by Wednesday, he said.

Extension educational specialist Nellie Lamers, who has also trained at eBay University, will teach the eight-hour workshop. She has over six years of experience and will be using up-to-date training techniques and eBay University student materials.

Keohan said eBay has been the most popular shopping destination on the internet since its inception in 1995.

"It has also turned into a hot marketing tool for business owners and persons wanting to make extra money," he said. "According to the latest statistics from eBay, over 440,000 sellers make a part or full-time living selling on eBay."

Keohan noted that prior "how to sell on eBay" programs held by TCRC have been extremely successful.

Course teaches eBay selling

Resource center in Reeds Spring will offer the popular class twice this month.

Donna Baxter
For the News-Leader

Iran and Venezuela back oil cuts

The presidents of Venezuela and Iran have called for a cut in oil production by the members of the Opec oil cartel.
Speaking in Caracas, Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said they wanted to co-ordinate the group to reduce the amount of crude oil on the market.

Mr Ahmadinejad is visiting Venezuela at the start of a tour aimed at boosting ties with Latin America.

Venezuela has been a strong ally of Iran in its controversial pursuit of a nuclear power programme.

Mr Chavez welcomed Mr Ahmadinejad to Caracas, calling him a "fighter for just causes, to a revolutionary and a brother".

He said the world oil market was oversupplied with crude, and said Opec should act to stop falling prices.

Both countries are major oil producers and members of Opec.

Venezuela and Iran have also agreed to establish a $2 billion fund for projects across the developing world, he added.

US opponents

While in Latin America, the Iranian president will also meet the leftist leaders of Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua.

Mr Ahmadinejad's talks with some of the US's most vocal critics is likely to alarm Washington, says one of the BBC's Latin America correspondents, Duncan Kennedy.

With his eyes fixed firmly on the Middle East, the last thing President Bush wants is another hostile diplomatic front opening up in his own backyard.

Iran insists that it nuclear programme aims to provide energy

But with the arrival of the Iranian president in the region, that is exactly what some commentators are predicting.

The most worrying alliance for Washington is that being forged between Iran and Venezuela, our correspondent says.

Mr Chavez and Mr Ahmadinejad are expected to sign a series of new trade and economic co-operation agreements.

"Iran and Venezuela are two important allies on a global level, the two countries have important industrial and oil projects, which we will follow up in this trip," Mr Ahmadinejad said ahead of his trip, according to the state-run Irna agency.

Uneasy relations

Washington will be watching closely for any concrete measures or policies that develop - chief among them, any sign of Venezuela pursuing its own nuclear programme in conjunction with Iran.

That would be unacceptable to Washington and would turn what are now uneasy relations between the two states into something much more serious, our correspondent says.

Mr Ahmadinejad will also visit Nicaragua, where Daniel Ortega, the former Sandinista revolutionary, took office this week following his convincing election victory.

The Iranian president will also attend the swearing-in ceremony of President-elect Rafael Correa in Ecuador on Monday.

Ecuador's new president opposes a free-trade agreement with Washington, arguing it is damaging to Ecuadorean industry.

Mr Ahmadinejad is also expected to meet other South American leaders, including Bolivia's Evo Morales, on the sidelines of the ceremony.

BetonSports CEO ousted

Internet gambling company BetonSports has removed David Carruthers from his job as chief executive following his arrest in the United States on charges related to an alleged racketeering conspiracy.

The company said that yesterday the contract under which David Carruthers acted as CEO of the company was terminated.

Mr Carruthers was arrested as he changed planes at Dallas airport on July 16 en route from the UK to Costa Rica.

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BetonSports said: Clearly while he remains in the custody of the US Government he is unable to perform his duties. Further the company has been unable to speak directly with Mr Carruthers.

Mr Carruthers, BetonSports founder Gary Kaplan and nine other former executives of the online betting company have been charged with racketeering conspiracy, transmission of wagers, mail fraud, tax evasion and other charges in a 22-count indictment.

BetonSports said in a second statement this morning: The board wish to make absolutely clear that none of the founders of the original business has any continuing role within the company.

BetonSports said it was still evaluating all its options before deciding what steps it will take next.

Internet gambling is a controversial area in the US with legislators attempting to pass laws that explicitly outlaw the sector.

However, the US Department of Justice believes existing laws already make the sector illegal.

Last week a DOJ spokesman in Washington warned: We view internet gambling to be in violation of federal laws. Those that conduct this business do so at their own risk.’’

Inflation fuels rate fears

A LEADING business survey will this week say that price expectations the extent to which businesses think they can raise prices have risen to a record high, adding to the Bank of England’s inflation worries.

The Bank’s monetary policy committee (MPC) raised Bank rate from 5% to 5.25% last week, citing high inflation and the economy’s strength.

The British Chambers of Commerce survey of 4,500 firms in both services and manufacturing will reinforce the argument for higher rates by reporting that business enjoyed a strong final quarter of 2006 and price expectations are the highest in the survey’s history.

It is expected to say that the strength of domestic demand has been driving the economy one reason for the Bank’s rate rise. But the figures on prices will cause concern for the MPC. The Bank has been worried about this year’s pay round, the return of pricing power among firms and the strength of money and credit growth.

The money markets are pricing in two more interest-rate hikes after last week’s move, which took Bank rate to its highest level since August 2001.

Despite the upbeat survey, figures released today show that the number of firms in difficulty is still high. Ernst & Young said 342 profit warnings were issued last year, down from 381 in 2005, but that this was high in the context of favourable economic conditions.

In the final quarter of last year, 88 profit warnings were issued by quoted companies, more than half from firms listed on AIM.

Keith McGregor at Ernst & Young said: There are signs the credit environment is beginning to tighten, with a rise in insolvencies indicating indebted firms may no longer be able to refinance their way out of trouble.

Although last week’s rate rise was widely thought to have been triggered by poor December inflation figures, only a minority of analysts expect consumer price inflation to top 3% when statistics are released on Tuesday.

Business built on chocoholics

Steve Coomber meets an entrepreneur who was inspired by a visit to a chocolate shop in Mexico while on a work placement

Life is sweet for Guillaume Hermitte. Fresh out of ESSEC business school in Paris, he has set up Puerto Cacao, a treasure trove of all things chocolate, located in the city’s 17th arrondissement.

Work placements are an integral part of the ESSEC MBA experience, with students required to spend 18 months in the workplace. Hermitte was working at the French Institute of Latin America in Mexico when he discovered the inspiration for Puerto Cacao. I was visiting Oaxaca, south of Mexico City, when I found this chocolate store, he says. The way they made chocolate was so wonderful that within ten minutes of leaving the store I decided to import the concept and adapt it to the French market and my vision and values.

His boutique sells chocolate in every form imaginable, from traditional chocolates through to chocolate cocktails. We have a new chocolate making process and we offer a customised service where we make chocolates to the customer’s preference.

It is also a socially and environmentally responsible business. Hermitte, who makes the chocolate himself, set up an import business, sourcing the cacao beans from producers in Venezuela. The chocolate is made without any additives or preservatives and 90 per cent of ingredients are fair trade.

Hermitte also makes a point of hiring socially disadvantaged, long-term unemployed people. I want to show that it is possible to set up a socially responsible, economically viable business, working with disadvantaged and socially excluded people, he says.

ESSEC was instrumental in helping Hermitte to get going, not least through the school’s business incubator. I raised about €250,000 (£168,000) and it allowed me to meet potential investors and tell them about my business, he says. The incubator was a rich environment; sharing ideas, problems and experiences with other entrepreneurs.

The MBA was useful in other ways too. Operationally it was a big help, he says. For a start the MBA gave me the knowledge to calculate my costs and margins and develop a coherent pricing policy.

The boutique has been open for just two months but the taste of success already has Hermitte planning a chocolate empire. I have created a new chocolate store concept and one day I hope to have a whole chain of similar stores.

Inventor of instant noodle was aiming for world peace

Momofuku Ando, who has died at the age of 96, saw cheap food as the answer to world peace and built a multi-billion dollar empire from his garden shed creation.

The inspiration for his famous creation, the instant noodle, came to Momofuku Ando while he was watching people queue at a black-market stall selling hot ramen noodle soup as the Second World War drew to a close. Food was short, and Ando decided that "peace will come to the world when the people have enough to eat". The sentiment would become his company’s motto.

Ando was born into a wealthy family in the city of Chiayi in Taiwan in 1910, when the island was under Japanese colonial rule. His first business venture was a trading company in Taipei, before he moved to Japan at the age of 23, to study economics at Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto.

While still a student, he set up a clothing company in nearby Osaka. The business failed, and Ando went bankrupt. But his entrepreneurial instincts were undimmed and, aware of the problems the ordinary Japanese were experiencing in feeding themselves, Ando, having avoided military service, set out to find a way of producing food cheaply on a huge scale. In 1948 he founded what was to become one of Japan’s biggest companies, Nissin Food Products.

The family-run company at first produced only salt, but Ando worked on a process of drying noodles in a small laboratory in his garden. In the end, however, it was not in his makeshift production plant but at the dinner table that he found his solution. After watching his wife make tempura deep fried fish and vegetables Ando realised that hot oil was the key to drying out a noodle. This breakthrough led to his launching the world’s first instant noodle, the Chicken Ramen, in 1958.

Initially it was considered a novelty or a luxury item, as fresh noodles sold at a fraction of the price. But Ando was convinced that the convenience of his concept would help it sell and soon instant noodles were favourites, downed by ranks of workers at their desks, popular with students and men whose jobs forced them to live away from home cooking.

Spurred on by this success, Nissin launched the first Cup Noodle in 1971. The use of a polystyrene pot, which could hold and insulate boiling water, meant that Nissin came to dominate the instant noodle industry. The Cup Noodle design remains almost identical today.

Amid all the success, Ando also found that some products were not meant for the instant market, including a failed experiment with instant rice that is reported to have cost £15 million. Nevertheless, Nissin now sells 85 billion instant noodle products a year in 70 countries.

Ando’s fondest achievement was one of his most recent. In 2005 Nissin developed Space Ram, a vacuum-packed Cup Noodle designed for the Japanese astronaut, Soichi Noguchi, to take on his mission aboard the US space shuttle Discovery.

As Nissin became a multi- billion-dollar empire, Ando appeared in advertisements and attending promotional events. He was chairman of the International Ramen Manufacturers’ Association, and in 1964 founded the Instant Food Industry Association, which introduced guidelines for quality and fair competition.

In 1999 Ando opened the Instant Ramen Museum in his home city of Ikeda, near Osaka, and last year he unveiled plans to host the World Ramen Summit, a conference on instant noodles, in Osaka.

He retired from his position as Nissin’s chairman in 2005, appointing his son, Koki, as president. Even in retirement, however, Ando remained active and spoke at this year’s Nissin new year ceremony.

He is survived by his wife, Masako, two sons and a daughter.

Momofuku Ando, inventor and businessman, was born on March 5, 1910. He died on January 5, 2007, aged 96