Television

FREE TO AIR TOP GEAR Channel Nine, 7.30pm CHANNEL Nine's desire to hitch itself to the Top Gear franchise is a no-brainer. Even on the nation's least-watched channel, SBS, it regularly attracted 1 million viewers. The show comes with a massive back catalogue and is an ideal fit for a network that still clings to its cheeky-bloke image. There will inevitably be cries of outrage €” too many ad breaks, deep fears that the 50-minute international version will be trimmed at the edges to fit the commercial TV hour and what will their local version, due on air mid-year, look like?

Missile shield on way

BUCHAREST. The US is to build a scaled-down missile defence shield in Romania by 2012 despite objections from Russia.