The low-cost carrier easyJet yesterday stole a march on rival Ryanair as it unveiled a 12 per cent rise in passenger numbers in January while saying it remained “cautiously optimistic” about performance this year. As a result he has announced his intention to leave the BBC.The list of second round bidders for BBC Technology published by the corporation is: CSC, Fujitsu, EDS, Capita, Accenture, IBM, Logica and HP.. However, Roger Flynn, the group’s chief executive, has achieved the £300m target early and with the sale of the BBC Technology division he is set to exceed Mr Dyke’s target by at least £100m. The BBC said that by outsourcing its technology requirements it could save at least £20m although this could rise, depending on who wins the bidding. BBC Technology supplies the BBC with all its broadcast engineering, its satellite equipment and the corporation’s desk top infrastructure.It is part of the BBC’s Ventures Group, set up under former director-general Greg Dyke, to commercially exploit the BBC’s technological expertise.

IBM, Hewlett Packard and Logica are among eight companies that have made it through to the second round of bidding for BBC Technology, the division which supports the entire corporation’s technology infrastructure.
BBC Technology is thought to be worth at least £100m and could fetch up to £150m. It comes with a 10-year contract to supply the BBC’s technology needs, worth £2bn. He said yesterday: “Marks & Spencer would not wish to distract her [Ms Cassani] in any way from such an important cause.”Ms Cassani’s appointment as head of London’s Olympic bid – where she does three days a week in her role as chairman – surprised some since she is American although she said at the time she was a “Londoner”.. A spokesperson said yesterday, however, that in reality, Marks & Spencer’s non-executive directors worked more than 15 days a year. “It’s always difficult to envisage what a workload will be,” she said, referring to Ms Cassani’s decision to quit.Her resignation reduces the number of non-executive directors at Marks & Spencer to five, including the former MI5 boss Stella Rimmington, although the company will replace her seat on the board as it wants to have a minimum of six non-executive directors.Marks & Spencer has six executive directors plus a chairman, Luc Vandevelde. Barbara Cassani, the former chief executive of the low cost airline Go who is now heading London’s 2012 Olympic bid, is to give up her non-executive directorship at Marks & Spencer. Ms Cassani, who took up the part-time board position only last October on a £34,000-a-year salary, officially steps down from the role at the high street retailer on 30 April.
Her resignation, Marks & Spencer said, was “in view of her increasing commitments to London’s bid for the Olympic Games for 2012″.Ms Cassani said: “While I would have liked to stay longer at Marks & Spencer, I do not believe I am able to give the role of non-executive director the attention it deserves without it affecting my focus on the task of leading the Olympic bid.”Marks & Spencer requires its non-executive directors to work a minimum of 15 days a year at the company and attend the scheduled eight board meetings a year.

He said it confirmed the Supreme Court as an ally of President Mugabe in his clampdown on freedom of speech.Other lawyers said that, on previous occasions, the Daily News had been closed by arbitrary government action.Now the newspaper has been, in effect, banned by the the highest court in the land – a court supposed to uphold human rights.Mr Chidyausiku was appointed in 2001 after Mr Mugabe’s government fired the widely respected chief Justice Anthony Gubbay.Mr Chidyausiku ruled that section 20 of the Zimbabwean constitution, which guaranteed freedom of expression, did not guarantee the freedom of the press as well.. Zimbabwe’s independent daily newspaper was, in effect, outlawed yesterday by a Supreme Court order putting all journalists under government control. But it is the thought of what else he may have distributed that is feeding the most fevered nightmares of Western security analysts who, in a reversal of Dr Strangelove’s cinematic premise, have belatedly learnt to start worrying and loathe the bomb.. He generally walks with his pockets stuffed with peanuts or sugar lumps. “I am the kindest man in Pakistan,” he boasted after the Baluchistan bomb tests, when he was trying to dispel the image of a mad scientist bent on annihilation “I feed the ants in the morning I feed the monkeys.” He still does.