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But it has now emerged that this cash is to be capped, with the maximum each project can receive set at £9m.Scottish Power and Amec have told the Department of Trade and Industry that without more state funding they will have to radically scale back the project or scrap it altogether.Alan Mortimer, the head of renewable policy at Scottish Power, also warned that more commercial-scale marine energy projects could go abroad if changes to their funding were not made.Mr Mortimer said: "If we can't make this project work, it's difficult to see how you can make any wave project work on a reasonable scale in the UK."Earlier this month, the Scottish firm Ocean Power Delivery announced its first order to build a wave farm using its Pelamis machine - in Portugal.. But it is understood that this has been delayed because of the transatlantic row over aviation subsidies.The Americans have warned that if Airbus receives any subsidy for its A350 then it will launch legal action through the World Trade Organisation. The European Commission has countered by pointing out that Boeing has received billions of dollars in tax breaks from Washington state.There are fears that if the DTI announces an aid package for the A350, this will trigger a full-blown European-US trade war.Securing the aid will be the most pressing job for the incoming chief executive. Ministers had hoped to make an announcement at next month's Paris Air Show. Airbus has warned that 32,400 British jobs are at stake if the Government rejects its application for up to £400m for a new jet. This is about changing the manufacturing base in the UK."Whitehall sources said that the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI) is keen to offer Airbus the so-called launch aid, which is repayable with interest. The Government must pull through because there is a big application for carbon fibre technology in the UK.
The former US president Bill Clinton cancelled a planned tour of tsunami-hit areas of the Maldives yesterday because of exhaustion. Cherie Hart, the regional communications officer for the UN Development Programme and the co-ordinator of Mr Clinton's visit, said the former president, who underwent a heart bypass operation in September, was not sick."He's plain pooped and he wants to slow the schedule down," she said. He had appeared tired on arriving in the Maldives' capital, Male, from neighbouring Sri Lanka late yesterday.Mr Clinton, who was recently named Special UN Envoy for Tsunami Recovery, would probably not be able to meet tsunami survivors in the tropical archipelago off India's southern tip but he still plans to hold talks with business leaders and government officials at the resort.He is in the middle of a four-day trip to India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Indonesia to ensure that aid is being distributed properly.The earthquake and tsunami on 26 December last year killed more than 176,000 people in 11 countries and left about 50,000 missing and hundreds of thousands homeless.. Police have issued similar advice, noting that kidnapping for ransom is rife in the area.. Embassy officials have posted notices warning them not to leave town in search of the octogenarians, and to decline offers from would-be guides. According to one Japanese newspaper, one of the veterans married a local woman and had children with her.More than 100 Japanese journalists have converged on General Santos, some chartering planes from the capital, Manila. It is quite conceivable, though, that they managed to evade the attention of the authorities. Mindanao is a lawless place, fought over by warring clans and competing Islamist guerrilla groups.
In 1974 a former intelligence officer, Lieutenant Hiroo Onada, was discovered on Lubang island, carrying a rusty rifle. He refused to leave the jungle until ordered to do so by his former commanding officer. That case was remarkable enough; if two men have indeed spent the past six decades hiding out in Mindanao, possibly convinced that hostilities were continuing, it would be one of the most extraordinary stories to emerge from the region in years.What seems more likely - if the pair indeed exist - is that they knew the war was over, but decided to stay on in the Philippines for their own reasons. In the final months of the war, soldiers of the 30th Division fought fierce battles against invading US troops.Some Japanese did not surrender until 1948.
