■ EconomyArgentine firms suffer
The 50 biggest companies in Argentina lost a total of 14.15 billion pesos (US$4.8 billion) last year as a result of the worst economic crisis in a century in the nation, according to a study released Monday. The Spanish-based Banco Frances BBVA, which studied the 50 largest firms quoted on the Buenos Aires stock exchange, said the companies most affected were those oriented toward the domestic market. Many of these firms had to pay their bills in dollars but had income only in pesos, which fell some 70 percent after the peg to the dollar was eliminated. The big losers included the Franco-Italian telecommunications consortium Telecom, Spain's Telefonica and privately owned banks Hipotecario, Galicia and Frances, according to the report cited by the daily Clarin.
■ Air traffic
Honeywell creates system
Honeywell International Inc has developed a system that can prevent runway accidents by giving pilots verbal alerts of their location on the ground, the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site. The company's Runway Alerting and Awareness System, which still needs to receive regulatory approval, could be available by the end of year, the newspaper said. It gives pilots verbal reminders of their location, regardless of weather conditions, radio communications and visibility, the newspaper said. The system can help pilots make smarter decisions in emergencies, the Journal said, citing Markus Johnson, Honeywell's chief test pilot. Runway collisions are one of the biggest safety concerns at airports, with hundreds of close calls reported every year, the newspaper said. Confusion about an plane's location accounts for nearly half of the close calls on and around runways, the Journal reported.
■ Gaming
Bets on war declined
Australia's Centrebet gambling agency has been flooded with calls from punters hoping to bet on the outcome of the Iraq war, but the company said yesterday it wouldn't touch the wagers "with a 40-foot barge poll." Centrebet, based in the outback town of Alice Springs, said it had received hundreds of calls from people interested in betting on everything from the final length of the war to the fate of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. "There were a couple of overseas operations that put a lot of bet options on this thing, and invariably when things like that happen we get inundated with requests to do the same," said Centrebet sports betting manager Gerard Daffy.
■ High-tech
Hong kong peeper busted
A high-tech Peeping Tom has been arrested in Hong Kong after using a wristwatch camera to take a photograph up a woman's skirt, police said yesterday. The 24-year-old was arrested after a woman, 27, noticed him putting him arm underneath her skirt as she rode a shopping center escalator in Hong Kong's Hunghom district on Monday. He was using a wristwatch with a digital camera function. Police were checking the watch to see if it had any other illicit pictures stored on it, a police spokesman said. A 26-year-old man was arrested in Hong Kong last month for using a Nokia 3650 mobile phone with a digital camera function to take pictures up women's skirts. His phone had 40 such pictures stored on it.
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