Those insurgents have never attacked Uganda’s territory or interests.The cult-like Lord’s Resistance Army is notorious for kidnapping children and using them as soldiers or concubines. It is made up of the remnants of a northern insurgency that began after Mr Museveni, who like Dr Besigye is a southerner, took power. The rebels want to replace Mr Museveni’s government with an administration guided by the Ten Commandments.Dr Besigye, once close to Mr Museveni, finished second in 2001 presidential elections. After the elections he fled Uganda, saying Mr Museveni had threatened him with arrest and he feared for his life.Yesterday’s court hearing was told by the prosecution that “Besigye resorted to armed struggle because he was defeated in the election”.The lawyer representing Dr Besigye said his client had not eaten since he was arrested on Monday for fear of being poisoned.Dr Besigye was the President’s personal physician during a five-year insurgency that Mr Museveni led before coming to power in 1986.. Virgin is considering making an offer for America’s recently bankrupted low-cost operator Independence Air in a move which would finally allow Sir Richard Branson to break into America’s budget airline market.

Virgin America, a subsidiary of the Virgin group, has been on the drawing board for the past two years but has yet to launch its domestic US service due to problems in complying with the country’s restrictive foreign ownership rules governing airlines.
The San Francisco-based company is understood to be looking closely at Independence’s operating licence and other assets as a way to bring its fledgling airline into the skies by the first half of next year.Independence declared bankruptcy last Monday after just 17 months as in independent operator, after its cash was eroded and it was forced to slash its capacity.While some rivals would like Independence to sink completely because it has forced them to dramatically cut their own fares, others view it as attractive because of the popular east coast routes it flies and because its base in Washington’s Dulles airport is regarded as a prime spot.Independence filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with Delaware’s bankruptcy court with $379m (£279m) in assets, $455m in liabilities and $24m in cash It said it would auction itself to the highest bidder. Interested parties must register with the court by 1 December and submit formal offers by 16 December.The launch of Virgin America, which is operated separately from the long-haul Virgin Atlantic business, has been delayed because the company has been talking to US private-equity firms about taking stakes in its business to satisfy rules limiting foreigners to owning 25 per cent of an airline’s voting shares. Virgin could fast-track a launch by buying Independence’s operating licence, which would require it to satisfy an “informal fitness review” by the US Department of Transportation (DoT). However, this process could start immediately and would be likely to be successful. But ultimately, Virgin must still comply with the ownership regulations.The DoT relaxed these rules two weeks ago but consultation on exactly what the new guidelines mean for foreign investors will stretch into early next year, making it difficult for Virgin and its potential private-equity partners to evaluate a deal with Independence.Virgin would not comment on its interest in Independence.A possible deal comes as talks take place this week in Washington between the US government and the European Union over deregulation of the world’s aviation market.. Vodafone shocked the market yesterday by warning of lower revenues and margins next year while revealing more bad news from Japan, plus a £5bn tax bill.

The news sent the company’s shares down 10 per cent in heavy volume as the City digested one of the most disappointing sets of results from Vodafone for some time.
Reporting half-year results, the company failed to win over investor sentiment, even though it increased its interim dividend by 15 per cent to 2.2p, worth £1.4bn in cash. It also said it would be increasing its share buy-back programme by £2bn to £6.5bn for the year to March 2006. However, the company’s interim results confirmed the fears of many analysts that much of Vodafone’s business is suffering from rapidly maturing mobile phone markets, particularly in Western Europe, and from regulators forcing prices down, including the rates Vodafone charges for switching calls on to its network, known as termination rates.Although revenues rose 6.4 per cent on a like-for-like basis worldwide to £18.2bn, operating profits were 5.9 per cent lower at £4.5bn. Pre-tax profits were £4.1bn, down 9.5 per cent, while earnings per share were 19.3 per cent lower at 4.36p a share.The company’s £5bn tax bill will be paid over the next three years and relates to a series of tax issues arising from acquisitions and other corporate activity stretching back to the telecoms boom in the late 1990s, when the company completed a number of large takeovers.Shareholders were given reassurance that the company had fully accounted for the liability on its balance sheet, and had been carrying reserves worth £9bn to cover these contingencies. Nevertheless, the market was taken aback by the size of the bill, and Arun Sarin, the chief executive, admitted the number may have proved something of a shock to investors. “It’s the first time we’ve said we are likely to see a £5bn cash tax payment in the next three years. That might have been a bit of a surprise,” he said.The half-yearly figures contained a grim warning from Mr Sarin that market conditions in Japan continued to be challenging.

In the six months to 30 September, revenues from what is Vodafone’s single biggest market fell 5 per cent to £2.7bn while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) slid 21.3 per cent to £804m.The company blamed its performance on the loss of higher-value customers, after a poor offering in the crucial third generation mobile phone market, and a ban in Japan on using mobiles while driving which came into effect in November. However, the sting in the tale for investors was contained in Vodafone’s outlook for its next financial year, which runs to the end of March 2007.It said like-for-like revenues across the group would be down compared with 2006 because of higher levels of mobile phone penetration, which has exceeded 100 per cent in markets such as the UK, and regulatory changes to termination rates. But key figures, such as ebitda, would also be down next year, the company said, as the benefits from its One Vodafone efficiency drive would be more than offset by the costs of more investment in recruiting more customers.”In Japan, the group remains confident that the … accelerated build out of its 3G network will enable Vodafone Japan to increase its share of the market’s overall growth in customers in 2007 financial year. The costs of funding this anticipated growth and the opportunities presented by the introduction of mobile number portability are likely to cause a further significant reduction in ebitda margin in the 2007 financial year as the group seeks to rebuild momentum in the business,” the company said.. Soaring sales of luxurious chocolate puddings to Marks & Spencer customers fattened profits for Northern Foods. The Leeds-based company, which supplies chilled, frozen and morning goods to M&S and the Big Four supermarkets, notched up pre-tax profits of £255.7m in the six months to the end of September.
That was 5.8 per cent better than last time after sales at its bakery division rose 6.9 per cent and it shifted 3.8 per cent more frozen food.

But sales of chilled foods – pizzas, ready-meals and sandwiches – were no better than in 2004.Pat O’Driscoll, Northern Foods’ chief executive, said: “Profitability on the chilled division is not at an acceptable level.” Managers at the 16 Northern factories that produce its chilled foods now report to her each week to compare performance. “You don’t want to be at the bottom of that batting order on a Friday afternoon,” she said. “It’s not a pleasant place to be.”Ms O’Driscoll joined the company from Shell in April and quickly axed two factories, 30 managers and 1,000 other jobs to try to turn around the struggling group.Northern has since pinched market share with its Fox’s biscuits, Goodfella’s pizzas and Pork Farms savoury pastries, and has landed new contracts from supermarkets.Shares improved 11p to 155.75p yesterday but City analysts reckoned it is still too soon to say for sure whether the business is back on track. Marion Mulcahy, of Numis Securities, said: “If they can crack Christmas, then they are on the road to recovery. But we are keeping them on hold until January.”The surging cost of the energy Northern uses to run its freezers, ovens and chillers has hampered efforts to improve margins, and is forcing the company to try to lift prices. Fuel bills were £2m higher in the first half of its year.Last month, Northern warned that bird flu was driving up the price of chicken for its pies and ready meals.. Tina Weaver, the former deputy editor of The Daily Mirror, and Martin Cruddace, the paper’s lawyer, pressured their “City Slickers” business journalists to lie to an internal investigation, in an attempt to protect the paper’s former editor Piers Morgan, a London court head yesterday.