By Jennifer Hill Reuters - 2 hours 58 minutes ago

LONDON (Reuters) - The communications industry regulator said on Monday it would crack down on misleading sales practices in the mobile phone market, after a voluntary code failed to bring operators to heel.

Ofcom said it would introduce mandatory rules after the code introduced last summer failed to stop the growing problem of "slamming" -- where rogue salesmen switch people to expensive long-term contracts -- and "cashback" promotions that do not deliver.

"Slamming" involves salesmen cold-calling with the promise of a free phone upgrade or discounts. Customers think this comes with no strings attached, but then find they have been locked into an expensive new deal.

The five main mobile phone networks -- O2, T-Mobile, Orange, Vodafone and 3 -- signed up to the guidelines on how they vet the resellers they do business with in July last year.

The code set out prohibited sales and marketing practices, how retailers must comply and complaints processes.

But Ofcom said it had since continued to receive a large number of consumer complaints about mobile mis-selling and cashback deals -- an average of around 700 per month in January, compared with 460 six months earlier.

Mandatory rules will introduce penalties of up to 10 percent of turnover for those who fail to comply.

Ed Richards, chief executive of Ofcom, said: "The UK has one of the more competitive mobile phone sectors in the world, but strong competition is no excuse for marketing malpractice.

"We warned the industry last year that unless it cleaned up its act we would consider introducing new rules.

"The facts show that this hasn't happened, so we are now proposing tougher measures to protect consumers from unacceptable sales and marketing practices."

A consultation will run until April 29 and Ofcom hopes to have the new rules in place by the summer.

But Rob Barnes, head of broadband and mobiles at price comparison Web site Moneysupermarket.com, said it was a case of "too little too late".

"Consumers are still being ripped off, particularly on cashback deals," he said.

"If these steps had been taken earlier, thousands of people may not have suffered at the hands of the providers."

Almost a third of people have not been successful in claiming all of promised cashback and a tenth have not received any money, a YouGov poll of 2,500 adults for Moneysupermarket found.

People who have received a slamming call can contact the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) if they want to register a complaint, and have seven days to terminate any unwanted contract, according to OFT rules.

Consumers can also register their mobile number at a Web site run by the Telephone Preference Service (www.tpsonline.org.uk). In theory, after 28 days this should stop all UK-based telemarketing calls, but it will not prevent unsolicited text messages.

(Editing by Stephen Addison)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California resident Nancy Fiddler has put for sale on eBay a mastodon skeleton that takes up most of her garage. The minimum bid -- $115,000 (57,000 pounds).

Her family's relationship with the Ice Age relative of the elephant has run its course.

Fiddler said they need the money an online auction could bring, and her son would prefer to build hot rod cars in the space the creature now occupies.

The Fiddlers also would like to use their sauna, which in the last four years has served as an additional repository for the huge plastic casts containing the animal's bones.

"We needed a safe, dry place," Fiddler said, explaining why they chose to sacrifice the sauna. "The mastodon takes precedence."

Mastodons, which stood 10 feet (3 metres) tall with trunks and tusks, migrated to North America about 15 million years ago and ranged all over the continent with saber tooth tigers, giant sloths and American camels. All met their extinction about 10,000 years ago.

A ranch hand discovered a mastodon tooth on the Fiddler ranch in northeastern California in 1997. Excavation revealed a rare, nearly complete mastodon skeleton that included everything but the tusks.

"It's a beautiful specimen," said paleontological consultant Bruce Hanson, who helped move the skeleton to the Oakland Museum of Natural History, where it was on display for several years.

After the museum made a replica, the Fiddlers moved the mastodon to the tasting room of a California wine bar. Then it found its way to their garage.

One paleontologist said he was sceptical that the Fiddlers would get as much as they want for the mastodon.

"What is it going to do? Sit on someone's mantle?" said Mark Goodwin of the University of California Museum of Paleontology. "I would prefer to see it donated to a museum. This is our fossil heritage."

(Editing by Xavier Briand)

GORDA, Calif. - Try not to run low on gas in the tiny Big Sur town of Gorda, where a gallon of unleaded regular costs $5.20. And it's $5.40 a gallon for premium.

Amerigo Gas Station employee James Willman says at least once a day he gets an earful from motorists who pull into Gorda, which is about 35 miles north of Cambria on scenic Highway 1.

Willman says "they say all kinds of stuff — `You ought to be shot,' or 'Where's your mask?'"

The good-humored Willman usually responds, "Hey, I just work here."

Many potential customers slow down, look at the price, then keep on rolling.

Station manager Leo Flores says the high price reflects the cost of bringing fuel to the town's remote location as well as its reliance on a diesel generator for all of its power.

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Information from: The Tribune, http://www.sanluisobispo.com

LONDON (Reuters) - A Tanzanian-born Muslim man who dubbed himself "Osama bin London" was found guilty on Tuesday of encouraging his followers to murder non-believers and of running terrorist training camps in Britain.

Mohammed Hamid, 50, who came to England when he was five, was convicted along with three followers -- Kibley da Costa, 25, Mohammed al-Figari, 45, and Kader Ahmed, 20 -- who the jury found guilty of attending the training camps.

A fifth suspect, Atilla Ahmet, 43, the so-called emir of the group, who once boasted of being al Qaeda's top figure in Europe, admitted three charges of soliciting murder at the start of the complex four-month trial at Woolwich Crown Court.

The trial was closely watched in Britain as Hamid was accused of providing the inspiration for the men who tried to carry out botched suicide bombings on London's transport system on July 21, 2005, two weeks after 52 civilians were killed by four suicide bombers in a similar attack.

In a separate hearing linked to the trial, two other members of the group admitted attending a terrorist training camp.

Sentencing will take place at a later date.

"Hamid and Ahmet are dangerous people who between them carried out the recruitment, grooming and terrorist training of young men," said Peter Clarke, assistant commissioner for specialist operations at London's Metropolitan Police.

Prosecutors said Ahmet and Hamid prepared the men for jihad, or holy war, by organising terrorism training disguised as camping or paintballing trips in rural locations around Britain.

An undercover officer who helped secure the convictions once heard a conversation in which Hamid boasted: "Fifty-two, that's not even a breakfast for me", referring to the July 7 attacks.

"Hamid directed his recruits through military exercises, teaching them how to defend themselves against armed ambush. This was not innocent activity taking place on a camping weekend," said Clarke.

"Hamid's links to men convicted of carrying out the (July 21) attempted bombings in London shows the depth of his involvement in terrorism."

Britain's security services say numerous Britons have travelled abroad, mainly to al Qaeda camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan, to learn militant training skills, but this was the first case of its kind involving training in the UK.

The jury were shown pictures of the men practising firing positions using sticks instead of guns, pretending to throw grenades, crawling through streams and carrying out other paramilitary-style exercises.

The day after the July 7 attacks, Hamid sent a phone text message to one of the July 21 conspirators saying: "We fear no one except Allah. We will not change our ways. We are proud to be Muslims".

The court also heard that when he was arrested in October 2004 at a stall in the capital's Oxford Street shopping area, he told police he was "Osama bin London" and claimed to have a bomb.

Ahmet had discussed giving TV interviews in which he had been referred to as al Qaeda's number one in Europe.

"So they are basically depicting me as ... you know one of the biggest terrorists in not only the UK but in the whole of Europe," Ahmet was reported as saying.

Hamid and Ahmet were arrested in London in September 2006 after a months-long intelligence operation.

(Editing by Steve Addison)