US evacuates its embassy in CAR

28 December 2012 Last updated at 08:01 ET

The US says it has evacuated its embassy in the Central African Republic as rebels threaten to advance towards the capital, Bangui.

The state department said it had not broken off diplomatic ties with the government but warned US citizens not to travel to CAR during the unrest.

Earlier, CAR President Francois Bozize appealed to the US and France to help block the rebel advance.

The UN has said it is evacuating its non-essential staff from the country.

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Most of the rebels have taken up arms against President Bozize's government before. But this time their campaign has been swift and they appear to have a chain of command that works. It also seems that these rebels have not been looting much - usually a sign that they are well kept and fed.

So where do they find their resources? Outside support for the rebel coalition cannot be ruled out. Neighbouring Chad has been fingered by some observers as a potential rebel supporter. Could Chad's President Idriss Deby want President Bozize replaced, even though Mr Deby helped him take power almost 10 years ago.

Though Chadian troops have been deployed to save Mr Bozize in the past, and they are again stationed outside Bangui as a buffer should rebels advance on the capital, Mr Deby's intentions seem unclear.

However, Mr Deby has always wanted a close ally to the south. The rebels are an unlikely alliance of splinter factions with different interests and may well split should they reach Bangui. Should that happen, it could plunge CAR into chaos - potentially sucking in Chad.

US state department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the embassy had suspended operations and that the ambassador and other staff had left the country on Thursday.

"This decision is solely due to concerns about the security of our personnel and has no relation to our continuing and long-standing diplomatic relations with the CAR," he said in a statement.

The BBC's Junior Lingangue in Bangui says resident are stockpiling food amid fears that the rebels - known as the Seleka coalition - could launch an assault in the next few days.

On Sunday, the rebels captured the northern city of Bambari, the third largest in the country, having earlier seized the rich diamond mining area around Bria.

On Wednesday, protesters in Bangui attacked the embassy of former colonial power France, accusing Paris of abandoning them.

France has about 200 soldiers based in CAR and stepped up security at its embassy after the attack.

President Bozize apologised for the incident and appealed for "our French cousins" and the US "to help us to push back the rebels".

However, French President Francois Hollande said Paris would not intervene in its former colony.

"If we have a presence, it's not to protect a regime, it's to protect our nationals and our interests and in no way to intervene in the internal business of a country, in this case the Central African Republic," he said. "Those days are over."

Seleka, which is made up of breakaway factions from three former armed groups, accuses Mr Bozize of failing to honour a 2007 peace deal, under which fighters who laid down their arms were meant to be paid.

The rebels have pledged to depose Mr Bozize unless he negotiates with them.

They began their campaign a month ago and have taken several towns in their push towards the capital.

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US firefighter gunman 'left note'

25 December 2012 Last updated at 16:01 ET

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A note left by the gunman is said to outline his plans, as the BBC's Adam McIlrick reports

A man alleged to have lured two US volunteer firefighters to their deaths in Webster, New York left a long note outlining his plans, police say.

No motive was given but the note left by William Spengler, identified as the gunman said he was planning to "do what I like doing best - killing people."

Police searching Spengler's burnt-out house say they have found human remains - believed to be those of his sister.

The firefighters were shot dead as they arrived to tackle a fire on Monday.

At a news conference on Tuesday, police said Spengler, 62, had three guns and aimed to burn down his neighbourhood.

Seven homes on a narrow stretch of land beside Lake Ontario were destroyed by the fire. Another two firemen and an off-duty police officer were wounded in the attack.

Police Chief Gerald Pickering told reporters that Spengler, who apparently shot himself in the head, had used a .38 calibre revolver, a 12-gauge shotgun and a Bushmaster .223 calibre rifle with flash suppression.

The same make and calibre rifle had been used in the murder of 26 teachers and children at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut on 14 December, he said.

The police chief told reporters in Webster that a two- to three-page note from the gunman had been found in which he said: "I still have to get ready to see how much of the neighbourhood I can burn down and do what I like doing best - killing people."

At a later briefing, Mr Pickering said human remains were found in the house Spengler shared with his 67-year-old sister, Cheryl.

Police believe the remains are hers.

Spengler and his sister lived with their mother until her death in October.

'Clear ambush'

Spengler had served 17 years in jail for killing his grandmother with a hammer but had done nothing to attract the authorities' attention since being granted parole in 1998.

As a convicted criminal, he was not allowed to own weapons.

Police said he appeared to have set "a trap" by setting fire to his home. His older sister, Cheryl, whom he reportedly hated, is missing.

Two of the firefighters who responded to the call, Tomasz Kaczowka, 19, and Mike Chiapperini, aged 43, were shot dead in what was described as a "clear ambush" on emergency services.

Their two wounded colleagues are said to be in a stable condition with gunshot wounds.

A police officer who came to their aid was praised by the police chief for saving people's lives.

Gerald Pickering cited "mental health issues" as a possible factor for the attack, which came months after the death of Spengler's mother.

The Newtown killer, Adam Lanza, killed his mother with her own guns before launching his attack on Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut.

His murders of 20 children aged six and seven have prompted a national debate on gun ownership and mental health.

"It's sad to see that that this is becoming more commonplace in communities across the nation," Monroe County Sheriff Patrick O'Flynn told AP news agency after the attack in New York state.

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Russia senators back adoption ban

26 December 2012 Last updated at 06:42 ET

Russia's upper house of parliament has unanimously backed a bill banning Americans from adopting Russian children.

The bill also proposes to ban US-funded non-governmental organisations that do any political work in Russia.

It will become law if President Vladimir Putin signs the bill. He has previously voiced support for it.

It is a response to the US Magnitsky Act, which blacklists Russian alleged human rights violators.

Sergei Magnitsky was an anti-corruption lawyer who died in a Russian jail in 2009.

Mr Putin has labelled that measure an "unfriendly act", saying Washington should instead address human rights violations in US prisons.

Under the act, the US will withhold visas and freeze financial assets of Russian officials thought to have been involved with human rights violations.

The Duma voted overwhelmingly in favour of the bill earlier this month. All 143 senators present at the upper house on Wednesday voted in favour of it.

US state department spokesman Patrick Ventrell has previously said that Russian children would be harmed by the measure.

The rate of adoption in Russia is low. Some 3,400 Russian children were adopted by foreign families in 2011, nearly a third of them by Americans. The number of children adopted by Russian citizens was 7,416.

There have been high-profile reports in Russia about some adopted children who were mistreated by their new American parents.

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Severe snowstorm moves across US

26 December 2012 Last updated at 16:43 ET

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One man describes "white-out" conditions in Indianapolis

A severe winter storm that whipped up tornadoes in the southern US has brought heavy snow to the Midwest and threatens disruption in the east.

At least six people have been killed and authorities have told people to stay at home rather than brave freezing temperatures and treacherous roads.

A state of emergency has been declared in Mississippi and Alabama after the storm downed power lines.

Hundreds of flights have been grounded by snow and blizzards.

More delays are expected as the storm moves towards New York state and Maine, where as much as 18 inches (46cm) of snow is expected in the next 24 hours.

The National Weather Service has warned of near-zero visibility in Buffalo, New York, where heavy snowfall is predicted to combine with high winds.

Weather warnings are in place from Florida and the Gulf Coast all the way up to New England.

Little Rock, Arkansas, saw its first snow on Christmas Day in 83 years, while in neighbouring Oklahoma seven inches of snow was blamed for a 21-vehicle pile-up on an interstate highway outside Oklahoma City.

Thirty-four tornadoes were reported in the southern states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama on Tuesday. A large section of a church roof in Mobile, Alabama, was ripped off by a twister.

Falling trees claimed the lives of two people in Texas and Louisiana. Deaths were also reported on the roads in Oklahoma and Arkansas.

More than 200,000 people are said to be without power.

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Chicago mobster Calabrese Sr dies

26 December 2012 Last updated at 17:58 ET

Convicted Chicago mobster Frank Calabrese Sr has died in prison aged 75, US officials have announced.

They said he passed away on Christmas Day at the Butner Federal Medical Center in North Carolina, without releasing the cause of death.

Calabrese had claimed he had a host of ailments, including an enlarged heart.

He was serving a life sentence after his conviction for racketeering in 2009. The high-profile trial involved 18 decades-old murders.

"It's very emotional right now because there were two sides to my dad, and I miss the good side," Calabrese's son, Frank, told the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper.

He had helped put his father behind bars by secretly recording him boasting about mob killings.

Calabrese was tried alongside four other mobsters and a former Chicago policeman.

It was Chicago's biggest mob trial in decades, producing sensational testimonies from witnesses about mafia killings.

However, none of the defendants was charged with murder.

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Toyota agrees $1bn US recall deal

26 December 2012 Last updated at 18:05 ET

Japanese carmaker Toyota has agreed to pay an estimated $1.1bn (£680m; 830m euros) in a settlement of hundreds of lawsuits from US owners.

The deal would compensate owners for economic losses and for the cost of safety changes to their cars.

Since 2009, Toyota has recalled more than 14 million vehicles worldwide after floor mats became trapped under the accelerator.

The settlement will have to be approved by a US judge.

Toyota owners argued that the company's technology rather than trapped floor mats was responsible for sudden cases of acceleration.

In a statement, Toyota US group vice president Christopher Reynolds said the settlement was "a difficult decision" because the accelerator controls had been confirmed as safe. But, he said, it was better for the company and its customers to turn the page.

US District Judge James Selna is expected to consider the deal on 28 December.

Badly tarnished

The company paid almost $50m in fines in 2010 because of the recall scandal, and the US Congress carried out a lengthy investigation.

But problems with pedals becoming trapped in floor mats have continued to dog Toyota.

Earlier this month the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Toyota had agreed to pay $17m for allegedly failing to report a safety fault this year in two Lexus models "in a timely manner".

Other recalls have involved faulty window switches, fuel leaks and, most recently, steering wheels and water pumps.

The company's reputation was badly tarnished by the repeated recalls and it lost its place as the world's biggest carmaker in 2011.

However, the Japanese firm said earlier on Wednesday that it anticipated a 22% increase in group sales for 2012, reaching 9.7 million vehicles globally, and returning it to the position of biggest car manufacturer.

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Samsung seeks US ban on Ericsson

26 December 2012 Last updated at 21:59 ET

Samsung Electronics has sought a ban on the import and sales of some Ericsson products in the US which it claims infringe its patents.

In a complaint filed with the US International Trade Commission (ITC), Samsung has accused Ericsson of breaching seven of its patents.

The move counters Ericsson's complaint to the ITC, made in November, seeking a sales ban on some Samsung products.

Ericsson has also claimed that Samsung infringed some of its patents.

The Swedish firm had a licensing deal with Samsung under which the South Korean manufacturer was allowed to use various technologies patented by Ericsson in its products.

However, the two firms have failed to renew the agreement, despite negotiating for almost two years.

Ericsson has claimed that Samsung wants to reduce the fee it pays to license the said patents, while Samsung has argued that the fee demanded by Ericsson is too high.

"We have sought to negotiate with Ericsson in good faith. However, Ericsson has proven unwilling to continue such negotiations by making unreasonable claims, which it is now trying to enforce in court," Samsung said in a statement.

"Under such circumstances, we have no choice but to take the steps necessary to protect our company."

Patent sharing

Ericsson is one of the earliest innovators in the telecommunications field and holds thousands of patents for technologies used in everyday global communication.

Some of these technologies are key to products made by other manufacturers such as Samsung.

Companies which hold patents to such essential technologies enter licensing agreements with other manufacturers allowing them the use of patents under fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory conditions.

Firms pay royalties to the patent holder to use the technology.

Ericsson earned $938m (£585m) last year in revenue from more than 100 licence agreements with companies in the industry.

However, stiff competition has lead to a much more protective stance by many companies over their patents in order to generate revenues.

Earlier this month, European Union competition regulators accused Samsung of abusing its position of holding key patents, while trying to negotiate royalty rates with rival Apple.

Meanwhile, Nokia and Apple have also taken rivals to court over patent infringement.

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George H W Bush in intensive care

26 December 2012 Last updated at 23:29 ET

Former US President George H W Bush has been in intensive care with a fever since Sunday, a spokesman has revealed.

Jim McGrath said he had had a "series of setbacks" and remained in a "guarded condition", but was alert and conversing with family and doctors.

Mr Bush, aged 88, has been in the Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas, since he was taken there for bronchitis treatment on 23 November.

He is the oldest living former president and a World War II veteran.

Mr Bush was Ronald Reagan's vice-president for two terms and became the 41st president in 1989, but was defeated by Democrat Bill Clinton when he stood for re-election in 1992.

'Humorous banter'

Mr Bush was now on a liquids-only diet, the spokesman said, describing his ailment as "a stubborn fever that won't go away".

He said the former president had not been able to celebrate Christmas in the traditional sense but his family was with him.

"He's conscious and he's able to engage in humorous banter with his doctor," Mr McGrath said.

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Family spokesman Jim McGrath said George H W Bush had suffered a series of setbacks

He also said that doctors were cautiously optimistic about Mr Bush's treatment.

When first admitted, the former president had only been expected to stay in hospital a few days, but a persistent fever kept him in hospital until and over Christmas.

On Christmas Day, Mr Bush was visited by his wife, Barbara, his son Neil and other family members.

He has also been visited twice by his son George W Bush, who served as 43rd president in 2001-09.

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Obama back for fiscal cliff talks

27 December 2012 Last updated at 04:30 ET

US President Barack Obama has cut short his holidays in Hawaii and is flying to Washington to try to reach a deal to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff.

Unless a compromise is found, tax increases and huge spending cuts come into force on 1 January, threatening to tip the US back into recession.

However, Democrats and Republicans are still at loggerheads over the issue.

Meanwhile, the US Treasury has announced measures to prevent it hitting a legal limit on its borrowing.

Default warning

In an open letter to the Democrat US Senate majority leader Harry Reid, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the Treasury would enact a series of extraordinary accounting measures to free up about $200bn from the government's official borrowing figure.

He said that the measures should prevent the government from reaching the $16.4tn "debt ceiling" - the legal limit set by Congress on how much the US government can borrow - for about another two months beyond 31 December.

The measures include:

• halting certain financial assistance provided by the federal government to state and local governments
• temporarily halting investments in new government debts by state retirement funds for civil servants and postal workers, and by an emergency fund that the government can draw on to defend the value of the dollar

Mr Geithner warned that without them, the government would run out of cash on Monday and "the United States would otherwise default on its legal obligations".

Legislation passed by Congress sets out how much the US government spends on the likes of social security and defence, whilst also legally defining how much the government can raise in taxes.

By imposing a third legal limit - the debt ceiling - the government faces a potentially impossible situation in which it must either disregard the debt ceiling, raise taxes without legal authority, or else default on some of its spending obligations.

The last time that the US government ran up against the debt ceiling, in the summer of 2011, President Obama negotiated a last-minute increase with the Republican-controlled Congress, from $14.3tn to the current $16.4tn limit.

That deal effectively created the phenomenon known as the fiscal cliff - $600bn in automatic tax rises and spending cuts due to come into force on 1 January 2013.

Republicans and Democrats agreed to these draconian measures to slash the government's rate of overspending - its deficit - as a fall-back position, on the assumption that a more sensible agreement on how to cut the deficit would be reached in the meantime.

'Silent corridors'

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What is the fiscal cliff?

• On 1 January 2013, tax increases and huge spending cuts are due to come into force - the so-called fiscal cliff
• Deadline was put in place in 2011 to force president and Congress to agree ways to save money over the next 10 years
• Fear is that raising taxes while massively cutting spending will have huge impact on households and businesses
• Experts believe it could push the US into recession, and have a global impact on growth

Mr Obama is expected to meet Republican leaders again to try to negotiate a solution, although no new date has been announced.

Republicans oppose cuts to defence spending as well as the expiration of income tax cuts on the highest earners, which date from George W Bush's presidency.

Democrats want to maintain financial support for lower-income families - including a payroll tax cut and extended unemployment benefits - and oppose cuts to entitlements such as Medicare and social security.

Both sides are keen to avoid taking the blame for the sudden contraction in the government's rate of overspending that would result if no deal is reached.

Failure to do so could damage the US and global markets, and threatens to send the US economy into recession.

Brinkmanship over the 2011 debt ceiling negotiations prompted the rating agency Standard & Poor's to strip the US of its top-ranking AAA credit rating.

The two sides remain far apart, but analysts say a short-term deal may be agreed that will postpone the cuts until spring.

On Wednesday, the Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner called on the Democrat-led Senate to come up with legislation on how it would avoid the cliff, and pass it to the House for consideration.

However, a senior administration official said it was up to Republican leaders not to stand in the way of an agreement.

Despite this, there is little sense of urgency in the capital - the corridors of Congress are silent, the BBC's Zoe Conway in Washington reports.

Changing taxation across the years
Tax year	1993-2000	2001	2002	2003-2008	2009-2012	2012 tax brackets	2013 scenarios
							Tax cuts expire	Tax cuts expire for top incomes
Source: Tax Foundation, IRS Tax brackets shown for unmarried individuals
President	Bill Clinton	George W Bush			Barack Obama
Bottom rate	15%	10%	10%	10%	10%	Up to $8,700	15%	10%
		15%	15%	15%	15%	$8,700- $35,350		15%
	28%	27.5%	27%	25%	25%	$35,350- $85,650	28%	25%
	31%	30.5%	30%	28%	28%	$85,650- $178,650	31%	28%
	36%	35.5%	35%	33%	33%	$178,650-$388,350	36%	33% or 36%*
Top rate	39.6%	39.1%	38.6%	35%	35%	Over $388,350	39.6%	39.6%
*President Obama has previously called for the tax cut to expire for those earning over $250,000

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US chipmaker faces huge patent fine

27 December 2012 Last updated at 06:51 ET

US chipmaker Marvell Technology faces having to pay one of the biggest ever patent damage awards.

A jury in Pittsburgh found the firm guilty of infringing two hard disk innovations owned by local university Carnegie Mellon.

It said Marvell should pay $1.17bn (£723m) in compensation - however that sum could be multiplied up to three times by the judge because the jury had also said the act had been "wilful".

Marvell's shares fell more than 10%.

The maximum penalty would be close to the $3.96bn value of the company, based on its market capitalisation.

Marvell told the Wall Street Journal it would try to convince the judge to reverse the judgement, and would appeal if that failed.

The university's law firm issued a statement saying it took "pride" in securing the award following Marvell's failure to license the university's intellectual property.

Faster disks

Marvell makes a range of chips which includes processors which power devices including Blackberry smartphones, Sony Google TV internet video boxes and LED lighting controllers, as well as hard disks.

Among the disk makers, Western Digital has been its biggest customer over recent years.

Carnegie Mellon had accused Marvell of including technologies - invented by one of its professors and a student - designed to increase the accuracy disk drives read data at high speeds.

The university told the court the firm had sold 2.3 billion chips incorporating the disputed inventions between 2003 and 2012.

Marvell had argued both that its chips had not used the university's tech, and that the patents should never have been awarded in the first place - but the jury disagreed.

Record award

The damage award has the potential to be the biggest in US patent history.

There have only been two larger previous awards, according to law data provider Lex Machina.

In 2007 Microsoft was ordered to pay Lucent Technologies $1.52bn in damages over disputed MP3 and MPEG video technologies; and in 2009 Abbot Laboratories was ordered to pay Centocor Ortho Biotech $1.67bn for infringing its antibodies biotech patents - however, both judgements were later overturned.

That leaves the recent $1.05bn jury award to Apple in its case versus Samsung as the largest outstanding figure - the judge in the case has yet to finalise the sum.

However, one expert said it would be some time before the details of the disk drive dispute would be finalised.

"It is generally the case that US juries make large awards, and it is generally the case that they get reduced on appeal," Ilya Kazi from the UK's Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys told the BBC.

"If history repeats itself Marvell could face a smaller sum - but it's still too soon to be sure how the process will play out."

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