Orange customers are to be mailed with offers of shares but they will not be given special incentives to invest

Orange customers are to be mailed with offers of shares, but they will not be given special incentives to invest.The company's growth over less than two years since the launch of the service in April 1994 has taken the City by surprise, partly because the track record of Hutchison in the United Kingdom had been poor. It was previously the controlling shareholder in the Rabbit telepoint system which was eventually abandoned. The company plans to raise pounds 700m by selling a 25 per cent stake in Orange in the share flotation.n Orange is to sponsor one of Britain's largest literary prizes, the Orange Prize for Fiction, to be launched later this week. The pounds 30,000 prize will be awarded to the female writer of the best novel of the year, together with a trophy, The Bessie Award.City comment, page 17. Two-thirds of new cellular telephone customers are now opting for digital. PETER RODGERS Business Editor Orange, the rapidly growing cellular telephone company launched less than two years ago, is to be floated on the stock market in March for around pounds 2.8bn, making a new fortune for a wealthy Hong Kong businessman.The expected flotation price will put a pounds 1.5bn tag on a stake controlled by Li Ka-Shing, head of the Hutchison Whampoa group of companies, and also a pounds 700m valuation on minority shares held by British Aerospace, which was a founding partner in the venture.Orange has only 7 per cent of the more than 5 million customers in the highly competitive cellular telephone market, which is dominated by Vodafone and Cellnet, the first two companies to be granted licences to operate in Britain.However, from a standing start Orange has grabbed a quarter of the much faster growing digital cellphone section of the market, which experts think will eventually take over most of the business.Orange said it now had more than 400,000 subscribers and claimed it was taking 30,000 new customers a month from among the 100,000 who are signing up for digital phones. He also warned of a growing knife culture among teenage gangs.Jack Straw, Labour's home affairs spokesman, yesterday proposed new controls on knives, including a ban on their sale to people under 16 and statutory powers to control the advertising of mail-order sales and the display of military-style blades.He is also pressing for warning labels to be attached to legitimately sold knives detailing the legal restrictions on carrying them.The Offensive Weapons Bill, which is currently going through Parliament, will increase the maximum penalty for carrying a knife without a good reason from six months to two years and an unlimited fine.Michael Howard, the Home Secretary, yesterday praised the amnesty which he described as an "excellent campaign"..

She said sales could be covered by a system of licensing similar to that for firearms.Sir Paul Condon, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, told the Commons Select Committee on Home Affairs last week that he would support new restrictions on the sale and advertisement of blades. Norfolk and Kent forces have yet to issue figures.Maria Wallis, Assistant Chief Constable of Sussex Police, who co-ordinated the campaign, said: "We must start getting the message to young people that it is not macho to carry knives."She added that some of the weapons handed in might be forensically examined if they were believed to have been involved in a specific crime.Pauline Clare, the Chief Constable of Lancashire Police, said yesterday that she would support new legislation to outlaw the sale of knives to people without a "legitimate" reason for wanting them. Surprisingly, some forces with large urban areas had relatively few knives given in, such as in Merseyside were the total was 595.Eleven police forces received more than 1,000 weapons each. Both Devon and Cornwall and Sussex police forces had more than 1,300 weapons handed in. The area with the fewest retrieved knives was the City of London with 21. Most will be melted down.The police said the exercise, which came in response to the murder of headmaster Philip Lawrence, 48, who was stabbed outside his school in Maida Vale, west London, had been a "huge success" In the Metropolitan Police area 3,741 knives were handed in Staffordshire had the highest turn-out with 4,804 weapons.

Along with kitchen and sheath knives people also left ceremonial swords, cleavers, flick knives, bayonets, CS gas canisters, air pistols and knuckle dusters. The Home Office is currently reviewing the law on dangerous blades, which includes considering action against shops and mail-order firms.With results from two of the 43 police forces still to come, the total number of weapons handed in had reached 37,600 yesterday. The final figure is expected to be about 40,000.The weapons were placed in special bins at police stations in England and Wales. JASON BENNETTO Crime Correspondent About 40,000 knives, machetes, swords and other weapons were handed in at police stations in England and Wales during a four-week amnesty, it was revealed yesterday.News of the vast haul of lethal implements was greeted by fresh calls from Labour and a chief constable for legislation to restrict the sale and advertisement of knives.

Formal identification of the girls' bodies was due to take place yesterday but it was believed they were Saequ, 14, Saema, 11, and Uzma, 9, three of Mrs Begum's six children.Two of the girls had had their throats cut and the other had died from multiple stab wounds.Two other children, Talat Mahmood, 15, and Asad Mahmood, 12, are said to be safe and well and staying with relatives.. It is believed that he had been strangled.A kitchen knife with an eight-inch blade was found at the scene.Three other children, all girls, were found dead in an upstairs bedroom at a house in Bristol. A 38-year-old man was remanded in custody yesterday charged with the murder of his estranged wife outside a city railway station. Khalid Mahmood, of Montpelier, Bristol, spoke only to confirm his name and address during the 10-minute appearance before magistrates in Birmingham. He was remanded in police custody until 25 January.