Oatmeal chocolate-chunk cookies easily outclassed Teresa Heinz Kerry's pumpkin spice recipe in the presidential wives' cook-off in November.Fashion: Motherhood and apple pie.Causes: Traditional "safe" areas of education and literacy. Criticised for lucrative US speaking engagements.Fashion: Hit and miss.Lampooned by her critics.Causes: Anti-poverty,education, human rights.Influence: Direct influence over husband but badly damaged by bad publicity, particularly over her adviser Carole Caplin.Could persuade her husband to stand down for health or family reasons.Laura BushAge: 58Married: 28 yearsChildren: Twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna, 23.Background: Degree in education and masters in library science. Leading employment and human rights barrister, and part-time judge.Hobbies: Wrote book on prime minister's wives, entitled Life in the Goldfish Bowl. Video images showed Homolka performing oral sex on her unconscious sister and her husband raping her.In what may be a vain effort to hide from her infamy, Homolka has changed her name to Karla Teale and has declined to say where she will be living.But she learnt French while in prison and has said she will make Quebec her home, claiming that the province is more tolerant than Ontario. In the interview on French-language television in Montreal, she repeated that she had acted under her husband's influence and asked that she be allowed to rebuild her life.Noting that her first desire was to taste the cappuccino, she said: "I don't want to be hunted down. But he added that last year's profit growth was in line with the group's business plan.The increase in profits was driven by Qinetiq's expansion into the US, the biggest market in the world for defence-led technology.
The company has up to £300m to spend on further acquisitions although Sir John said that a lot of the growth could come from its existing businesses.Qinetiq and its predecessor organisation, Dera, were responsible for inventions such as carbon fibre, microwave radar, the liquid crystal display and Chobham armour.In recent years it has patented a new millimetre wave technology which is now being experimented with as a means for detecting suicide bombers in locations such as airports. The two American acquisitions which it completed last year contributed £78m of sales and £9.1m in operating profit.The UK Ministry of Defence remains Qinetiq's biggest customer, accounting for three-quarters of last year's £872m turnover, thanks in part to a long-term agreement to provide testing and evaluation services on MoD sites.But Sir John forecast that in five years' time, sales in the US could be equal to those from the UK as it continued its drive to grow its US presence. It is likely to take the form of a partial sell-off, reducing the Government's holding in Qinetiq to less than 50 per cent. At present the state holding is 56 per cent with employees holding a further 13 per cent, although Carlyle has held a majority of the voting rights in the company since the original public-private partnership in 2002.A report last year by the investment bank Morgan Stanley, which has been hired to advise the Government, concluded that Qinetiq was ready for flotation.Sir John Chisholm, Qinetiq's chief executive, declined to comment on the timing of any flotation, saying that was a matter for the company's shareholders. The company, formerly part of the Defence Evaluation Research Agency, was valued at £500m when the US private equity group Carlyle bought a one-third stake in December 2002.
But the forthcoming stock market listing, expected in the next six to nine months, is likely to put a price tag on Qinetiq of nearer £1bn. The sale will be the first public flotation of a state-owned business since Labour came to office eight years ago. Qinetiq, the defence technology group which was hived off by the Government three years ago, remains on course for flotation after reporting a 33 per cent increase in operating profits last year to £70m. When he became chief executive of MBNA in late 2003 Mr Hammonds reversed many of the high-rolling ways of his predecessor, Charlie Cawley, selling MBNA's golf course and art collection. He also cut corporate perks which critics said were prevalent at MBNA, such as company-owned boats.Mr Hammonds' payout from the Bank of America sale, revealed by The Wall Street Journal, is in the well-established tradition of bumper compensation for American executives who agree to sell the companies they run. James Kilts, the head of Gillette, will collect about $173m from the sale of the company to Procter & Gamble, which is being finalised.William Aldinger, the former chief executive of the US lender Household International, received $20m in compensation for formally losing his job when the business was sold to HSBC..