US lab worker monitored for Ebola

25 December 2014 Last updated at 02:40

A US laboratory technician is being monitored after possible exposure to the Ebola virus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.

It said the technician was working at the CDC in Atlanta when an Ebola sample was mistakenly moved from one laboratory to another.

The employee will be monitored for 21 days. A CDC spokeswoman said there was no risk to the public.

The CDC's director said he was "troubled" by the incident.

"I have directed that there be a full review of every aspect of the incident and that CDC take all necessary measures," said Tom Frieden.

"No risk to staff is acceptable, and our efforts to improve lab safety are essential - the safety of our employees is our highest priority."

Ebola spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids. It has killed more than 7,500 people in West Africa, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Monitoring the technician is at least the second time this year the CDC has had to take precautionary measures after a laboratory safety problem.

In June, more than 50 CDC workers took precautionary antibiotics after being potentially exposed to a deadly strain of anthrax.

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Gay US blood donor ban 'should end'

23 December 2014 Last updated at 19:26

Gay and bisexual men should no longer be banned from donating blood in the US, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recommended.

The ban has been in place since the HIV/Aids epidemic in the mid-1980s.

Men who have had sex with other men in the previous 12 months will still be banned, the FDA said in a statement.

The move brings the US into line with other countries such as the UK, Australia and Spain, which have also lifted outright bans in recent years.

New guidelines will be drafted in early 2015 and then a consultation period will follow.

Currently the ban excludes men who have had sex with other men at any time since 1977.

Campaigners have long argued the ban discriminates against gay and bisexual men and reinforces negative stereotypes.

And due to advances in HIV testing, the American Medical Association and other groups say the lifetime ban is no longer supported by science.

Blood donation around the world:

• UK (excluding Northern Ireland), Japan and Australia have a one-year ban on men who have had sex with another man

• Canada has a five-year ban

• No ban in Italy, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Russia and Spain, but some of those countries have tougher screening questions

Why are blood donors asked their sexual history?

"Over the past several years, in collaboration with other government agencies, the FDA has carefully examined and considered the available scientific evidence relevant to its blood donor deferral policy," the statement said.

It added: "The agency will take the necessary steps to recommend a change to the blood donor deferral period for men who have sex with men from indefinite deferral to one year since the last sexual contact."

The 12-month deferral period is because it takes on average two to four weeks to pick up an HIV infection when testing blood and a couple of months to detect Hepatitis B.

But some activists are unhappy there are still any restrictions.

"While this proposed change is certainly historic, it would still mean that countless gay and bisexual men will be turned away from blood banks simply because of who they are," said the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

Men and women of any sexual orientation are not permitted to give blood for one year after having sex with someone with HIV, with a prostitute or with an intravenous drug user.

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Canada porn actor jailed for murder

23 December 2014 Last updated at 22:22

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Laura Westbrook reports: "The court's decision means the 32 year-old... will be heading to prison rather than a psychiatric hospital"

A Canadian porn actor has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for murder for killing and dismembering his lover in 2012.

Jurors in Montreal rejected Luka Magnotta's defence that mental illness meant he was not responsible.

Magnotta, now 32, had earlier admitted killing 33-year-old student Jun Lin before his body parts were posted to political parties and schools.

Magnotta was later arrested in a cybercafe in Berlin, Germany.

Before his arrest, French police said he had flown to Paris from Montreal.

Investigators have said a video posted online, in which a man apparently uses an ice pick to kill another man, is believed to show Jun Lin's murder.

Headless torso

Magnotta was sentenced after eight days of deliberations by the jury.

He was also convicted on four related charges of criminally harassing Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other members of parliament, mailing obscene and indecent material, committing an indignity to a body, and publishing obscene materials.

He was impassive in court as the verdict was read and when the sentence was delivered.

The defence had said that Magnotta was a schizophrenic and therefore could not be held criminally responsible.

But the prosecution had successfully argued that the murder in May 2012 was both planned and deliberate.

Mr Lin's headless torso was found behind the block of flats where the bisexual porn actor lived.

Severed limbs, also confirmed to be the Chinese student's, were sent to political parties in Ottawa - including Mr Harper's Conservative Party - and to two schools in Vancouver.

The case sent shockwaves across Canada and gained international notoriety.

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Mayflower replica build under way

24 December 2014 Last updated at 15:00

A charity behind a life-size replica of the Mayflower, the ship which took the Pilgrim Fathers to America, has reached the first stage of construction.

Harwich Mayflower Project aims to raise £4m to complete the reconstruction by 2020, the 400th anniversary of the famous voyage.

One of the organisers, Sean Day, said: "We have nearly completed the frame of the keel, which is the first stage."

The charity celebrates its fifth anniversary next year.

It already received the support of celebrities such as Sir Richard Branson who called the scheme a "brilliant, audacious project".

Explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes has also given his support and will be the guest speaker at a fundraising event at the Palace of Westminster on 12 March.

The Mayflower left Plymouth to sail to America in 1620 and its links with the Devon city been well documented.

However, supporters of the project have emphasised the importance of its Harwich heritage.

It is believed the Mayflower was built in 1590 and the captain and crew for the Pilgrim Fathers voyage were from Harwich.

The ship docked at Plymouth to take extra passengers after setting off from Rotherhithe in London.

The charity, which has already helped train 300 young people in skills such as carpentry, hopes its training centre will act as a "legacy" of the ship build.

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St Louis shooting 'unlike Ferguson'

25 December 2014 Last updated at 05:36

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Mayor Theodore Hoskins: "The deceased pointed a gun at the officer"

The mayor of the St Louis suburb where a white police officer shot dead a black teenager has said the case cannot be compared to that of Michael Brown.

Berkeley Mayor Theodore Hoskins said surveillance footage appeared to show 18-year-old Antonio Martin pulling a gun shortly before he was shot.

That distinguished the shooting from that of Mr Brown, who was unarmed, in nearby Ferguson this summer.

Protesters clashed with police on Tuesday night in Berkeley.

On Wednesday, a smaller crowd of protesters gathered at the petrol station where Mr Martin was shot.

Berkeley is about two miles (3km) from the St Louis suburb of Ferguson, where Mr Brown, also 18, was shot dead by a white officer in August.

His death and a subsequent grand jury decision not to charge the officer triggered nationwide protests. There were further protests over the death of Eric Garner, 43, a black man who died while being held down by a white police officer in July in New York.

'Commensurate response'

"You couldn't even compare this with Ferguson or the Garner case in New York," said Mr Hoskins. "The video shows that the deceased pointed a gun... at the officer."

He also noted that the majority of police officers in Berkeley were black, unlike in Ferguson, where where there is a mostly white police force and a mostly black population.

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Police have released CCTV footage, as Aleem Maqbool reports

He added: "The mayor is black. The city manager is black. The finance director is black. The police chief is black. Our police officers are more sensitive."

Mr Hoskins said that both the city and St Louis County would hold independent investigations. "Our overall goal is to project the truth to residents," he added.

St Louis County police chief Jon Belmar said a police officer was responding to a call about a theft when he saw Mr Martin and another man at a petrol station in Berkeley and approached them.

He said that after Mr Martin pointed a handgun at the officer, the officer "responded with what he thought was commensurate force at the time" by firing three shots.

"This individual [Mr Martin] could have complied with the officer; he could have run away; he could have dropped the gun. Things did not have to end with him approaching an officer with a 9mm pistol in his hand."

The officer was wearing a body camera but it was not switched on, Mr Belmar said.

A lawyer for the officer, Brian Millikan, said his client was lucky to be alive. "I don't know why the guy didn't get a shot off, whether his gun jammed or he couldn't get the safety off," he said.

The handgun said to belong to Mr Martin has been recovered by police.

On Tuesday night Mr Belmar said protesters had thrown bricks at police officers, and set off three explosive devices.

Four people had been arrested for assaulting police officers, he said.

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Deadly storm strikes southern US

24 December 2014 Last updated at 12:47

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"It's a pretty heartbreaking sight to see" - Haskel Burns, journalist

A severe storm bringing a tornado, heavy rain, hail and lightning has hit parts of the southern US, killing at least four people and disrupting electricity supplies, officials say.

Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant has declared an emergency in two counties.

His office said thousands were without power around Columbia, about 130km (81 miles) south-east of Jackson.

"We've got whole roofs lying in the road, people trapped in houses, cars flipped over," a local sheriff said.

Marion county Coroner Norma Williamson said that one woman was killed in a shopping area in Columbia, a rural community of about 6,500 people, and another in a nearby trailer home.

"It's chaos over here," she said of the storm, which damaged buildings, knocked over trees, scattered debris across roads and overturned vehicles including an ambulance.

The hospital in Columbia is reported to be running on generator power and some people in Marion county were reported by the Hattiesburg American newspaper to be trapped in their homes.

Storm warnings have now been issued for large parts of the states of Alabama and Georgia with the bad weather predicted to be moving towards Atlanta and south into Florida throughout Wednesday.

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US economy growing at faster pace

23 December 2014 Last updated at 14:48

The US economy grew at an annual rate of 5% in the third quarter, its fastest pace for 11 years, official figures suggest.

The US Commerce Department said GDP rose faster than the previous estimate of 3.9% for the July-to-September period, boosted by stronger consumer and business spending.

This was the fastest rate of growth since the third quarter of 2003.

The strong figure builds on the second-quarter growth rate of 4.6%.

Much of the third quarter growth came from consumer spending, which accounts for around two-thirds of US economic activity. Consumer spending grew at an annual pace of 3.2%, the fastest since the fourth quarter of 2013.

Growth in business investment was raised to a rate of 8.9% from an earlier estimate of 7.1%. There was a stronger pace of spending than previously thought on equipment, intellectual property products and non-residential structures.

After two strong quarters for the US economy, economists predict that growth will slow to an annual rate of around 2.5% in the current October-December quarter.

But they predict growth of about 3% in 2015, which would be the fastest pace since 2005.

Jobs and spending

The US economy has struggled to regain its pre-2007 vigour following the global economic downturn, which was precipitated by the US subprime mortgage crisis.

After the recession in the US ended in 2009, growth struggled to return to its previous levels. Growth has averaged about 2.2% annually, compared with 3.3% growth in 2005.

However, analysts think US growth is set to accelerate as businesses become more confident about taking on employees.

The US unemployment rate was 5.8% in November. With more people working, solid gains are expected in consumer spending.

It is widely anticipated that the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, will begin raising interest rates in 2015.

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US shares close at record level

23 December 2014 Last updated at 21:39 Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story

The Dow Jones has closed above 18,000 for the first time after figures showed the US economy grew at its fastest rate in 11 years in the third quarter.

The Dow rose 64 points to 18,024, while the S&P 500 also climbed, ending up three points to 2,082.

But the Nasdaq lost 16 points to close at 4,765.

Official figures released earlier on Tuesday showed the economy grew at an annual rate of 5% in the quarter, up from a previous estimate of 3.9%.

Despite the strong growth figure, separate data on durable goods orders - seen as a proxy for business investment - disappointed as it showed a fall of 0.7% in November.

'Merry Christmas'

However, analysts were cheered by the pick-up in GDP.

"That is a solid number, that is really what you want to see, you want to see it in demand," Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank in Chicago, told Reuters.

"That is a huge plus, a five handle on GDP is astounding to me, but I'm not going to turn it away - Merry Christmas."

The Dow Jones has gained 9% this year and set 36 record closes in the process.

Meanwhile the S&P 500 is up almost 13% and has recorded 51 record highs.

Some market-watchers are confident that the gains have further to go.

"You have to understand that US economic output is at an all-time high and corporate profits are at an all-time high,'' said Cameron Hinds, regional chief investment officer at Wells Fargo Private Bank.

"Bull markets typically don't die purely of old age, they tend to die of recessions and overvaluation and perhaps policy mistakes, and we don't see any of those on the horizon," he added.

Market movers

Among individual shares, Hertz jumped more than 8% after the firm raised prices for car rentals beginning next year.

The company said the move was to compensate for the rising costs of running its fleet of cars.

Alibaba fell almost 3% after a report in the Wall Street Journal reported that an Alibaba service to help foreign brands break into China was delivering disappointing sales.

Shares in Chevron and Exxon Mobil gained more than 1% after oil prices rose.

The benchmark price for Brent Crude added $1.61 to $61.72 a barrel and US West Texas Intermediate Crude rose $1.84 to $57.15 a barrel.

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George Bush Sr taken to hospital

24 December 2014 Last updated at 04:00

Former US President George Bush Sr has been taken to hospital after suffering from a shortness of breath, his spokesman says.

Mr Bush, 90, was taken to the Houston Methodist Hospital as a precaution, and "will be held for observation, again as a precaution", said Jim McGrath.

Two years ago, Mr Bush was treated in the same hospital for more than two months for a bronchitis-related cough and other issues.

He was president from 1989 to 1993.

He is the oldest living former US president and a World War II veteran. He can no longer use his legs, but in June celebrated his 90th birthday by making a tandem parachute jump.

His son George W Bush served as president from 2001 to 2009.

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Hack threat comedy released in US

25 December 2014 Last updated at 09:22

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Filmgoer: "I came out to stand up for freedom of speech"

The controversial comedy The Interview has opened in some US cinemas and online, after a cyber-attack and threats to moviegoers over its release.

Sony Pictures had originally pulled the film, about a fictional plot to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

But it reconsidered after critics - including the US president - said freedom of expression was under threat.

Some cinemas organised midnight showings for Americans determined to see The Interview on the big screen.

Several hundred independent cinemas across the US have come forward offering to show the title after larger cinemas decided not to screen it following threats.

Lee Peterson, manager of Cinema Village in New York, told Reuters news agency it was a matter of principle to show the film.

"Obviously we would like to make money from the movie, as we would with any movie, but it's important to take a stand about freedom, freedom of speech, freedom to see movies."

The film is also being offered through a dedicated website and via Google services YouTube and Play, and Microsoft's Xbox Video platform, but only in the US.

A spokesman for Sony told the BBC the release was US-only "at this point".

Sony Pictures initially pulled the film after suffering an unprecedented hacking attack at the hands of a group calling itself the Guardians of Peace.

Last week, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said its analysis pointed the finger at North Korea. However, many cybersecurity experts have come forward to dispute this assertion.

North Korea denied being behind the attack but described it as a "righteous deed".

The hackers threatened to carry out a terrorist attack on cinemas showed the film on its scheduled release date of Christmas Day. After many cinemas pulled out, Sony cancelled the release.

That move was described by President Obama as a mistake.

Reaction in tweets

Maximus Clean - I loved #TheInterview and thought it was @Sethrogen and @JamesFrancoTV's finest movie yet. Good job!

Kira Craig - Just watched #TheInterview - pretty hilarious movie. Would expect nothing more from Seth Rogan and crew

Aimee Sanchez - Exercising my right as an American by watching #TheInterview @JamesFrancoTV @Sethrogen #MerryChristmas

DeAnna Sealtiel - #TheInterview was NOT worth the hype. Funny, but not worth the stress and aggravation that came along with it

Dan Field - Sony shouldn't have ever released #TheInterview, not because of the threat, but because the movie is terrible.

Aditya Basrur - Just watched #TheInterview. What a waste of money. Expected the movie to be much better.

Viewers react to seeing The Interview

Sony Chairman Michael Lynton said digital distribution had now been chosen to reverse some of that damage.

"It was essential for our studio to release this movie, especially given the assault upon our business and our employees by those who wanted to stop free speech.

"We chose the path of digital distribution first so as to reach as many people as possible on opening day, and we continue to seek other partners and platforms to further expand the release."

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Sony made The Interview available online on Wednesday but only in the US

In a blog post announcing its involvement, Google's top lawyer David Drummond said the firm had weighed up the potential fallout.

"Last Wednesday Sony began contacting a number of companies, including Google, to ask if we'd be able to make their movie The Interview available online," Mr Drummond wrote.

"After discussing all the issues, Sony and Google agreed that we could not sit on the sidelines and allow a handful of people to determine the limits of free speech in another country (however silly the content might be)."

The Interview saga

The Interview features James Franco and Seth Rogen as two journalists granted an audience with Mr Kim. The CIA then enlists the pair to assassinate him.

• 22 November: Sony computer systems hacked, exposing embarrassing emails and personal details about stars
• 7 December: North Korea denies accusations that it is behind the cyber-attack, but praises it as a "righteous deed"
• 16 December: "Guardians of Peace" hacker group threatens 9/11-type attack on cinemas showing film; New York premiere cancelled
• 17 December: Leading US cinema groups say they will not screen film; Sony cancels Christmas Day release
• 19 December: FBI concludes North Korea orchestrated hack; President Obama calls Sony cancellation "a mistake"
• 20 December: North Korea proposes joint inquiry with US into hacks, rejected by the US
• 22 December: North Korea suffers a severe internet outage; US authorities decline to comment
• 23 December: Sony bosses appear to change their minds, saying they will now give The Interview a limited Christmas Day release
• 25 December: The Interview is shown in some US cinemas and released online

Have you seen the film? What do you think about the row over its release? You can share your views by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

If you are willing to talk to a BBC journalist, please leave a contact number.

Have your say

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