Samsung Electronics Co. and Apple Inc. sparred in a key U.S. court hearing on Thursday in which Samsung sought to overturn a jury verdict while the iPhone maker ramped up calls for sales bans of several Samsung products.Samsung suffered a crushing defeat in late August, when a U.S. jury ordered US$1.05 billion in damages after finding some Samsung smartphones and tablets infringed on Apple patents.Earlier in the day, U.S. federal judge Lucy Koh resumed a court session between the world's two top

Industry Dec. 7, 2012

U.S. President Barack Obama expressed "deep concern" Thursday over the recent deadly political protests in Egypt, in a call to his counterpart Mohamed Morsi, the White House said.Obama also told Morsi that it was "essential for Egyptian leaders across the political spectrum to put aside their differences and come together to agree on a path that will move Egypt forward," the White House said in a statement.Morsi earlier defied calls to curb his sweeping powers or suspend proposed changes to the

World News Dec. 7, 2012

Five demonstrators died overnight Thursday in the worst violence since Mohamed Morsi became Egypt's first Islamist president in June.The five were killed by gunfire or buckshot as nearly 350 others were wounded when allies and foes of Morsi clashed around the presidential palace in Cairo, state news agency MENA said.They started off by lobbing fire bombs and rocks at each other on Wednesday as their simmering standoff over the president's expanded powers and a new constitution turned violent.Mor

World News Dec. 6, 2012

British officials say their investigation of why a smartphone caught fire and left an 11-year-old boy's legs burned and permanently scarred is a priority.The family is now demanding the popular BlackBerry Curve 9320 mobile is recalled from shops in time for Christmas.Pete and Sarah McCreath say they are seeking the BlackBerry Curve 9320 smartphone recalled from British stores before Christmas after a BlackBerry device malfunctioned and spontaneously combusted, the Daily Telegraph reported. Sarah

Technology Dec. 6, 2012

U.S. astronomers say they've observed a young star with a rotating dust disk considered the youngest still-forming planetary system ever found.The infant star surrounded by a swirling disk of dust and gas is more than 450 light-years from Earth in the constellation Taurus, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory reported Wednesday.While just one-fifth the mass of the sun, it will probably pull in material from its surroundings and eventually match the sun's mass, scientists said.The disk of mat

Technology Dec. 6, 2012

The U.S. president leads it, of course, and then there's Pope Benedict XVI, and Angela Merkel, and Facebook's founder, and other global rainmakers on Forbes' ranking of the mightiest earthlings.But the magazine's 2012 list of the world's most powerful people also features folks who might raise an eyebrow or two: a Mexican drug baron, and the pudgy-faced young leader of North Korea, a hermit state assailed for pursuing a nuclear program at the expense of feeding its very poor people.Last year's N

World News Dec. 6, 2012

Apple shares suffered their worst decline in years Wednesday as selling momentum gained steam for the longtime tech star and world's largest company by value.Apple stock tumbled 6.43 percent to close at $538.79, and is now down some 23 percent from its record high earlier this year above $700.There has been no single catalyst for Apple losing its luster, although some analysts say it has lost its edge in innovation, and that its iconic iPhone and iPad are facing tougher competition.Another facto

World Business Dec. 6, 2012

Standard & Poor's cut Greece's already junk-level debt rating to "selective default" Wednesday after the country launched an operation to buy back debt at a big discount.Greece was cut from CCC, the lowest level before default, S&P said, because its invitation to investors to sell back the Greek bonds they hold at discounts to face value "constitutes the launch of what we consider to be a distressed debt restructuring.""The offer, in our view, implies the investor will receive less value than th

World Business Dec. 6, 2012

At least 325 people were killed and hundreds remain missing in the Philippines following the deadliest typhoon to hit the country this year, the civil defense chief said Thursday."We have 325 dead and this is expected to rise because many more are missing," civil defense chief Benito Ramos told a news conference.He did not give a fresh total for the number of missing after Typhoon Bopha ravaged the southern island of Mindanao on Tuesday.However he noted that both figures were "rising rapidly fro

World News Dec. 6, 2012

South Korean stocks opened a whisker higher on Thursday on gains in tech and auto heavyweights, analysts said.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) rose0.07 percent, or 1.38 points, to 1,948.42 in the first 15 minutes of trading.Market bellwether Samsung Electronics climbed 0.27 percent and top automaker Hyundai Motor advanced 0.88 percent.However, LG Electronics slumped 3.2 percent and Samsung SDI fell 2.92 percent following a cartel fine by the European Union.The local curren

Dec. 6, 2012

South Korea's LG Electronics and Samsung SDI are among the companies fined a record total of 1.47 billion euros ($1.9 billion) by the European Union antitrust regulator over price-rigging of television cathode ray tubes, authorities said Wednesday. The European Commission fined LG Electronics 295.6 million euros and Samsung SDI 150.8 million euros, for fixing prices of now-obsolete cathode ray tubes with five other international firms over roughly a decade. The watchdog imposed the biggest penal

Industry Dec. 6, 2012

Supporters and opponents of Egyptian leader Mohammed Morsi fought with rocks, firebombs and sticks outside the presidential palace in Cairo on Wednesday, as a new round of protests deepened the country's political crisis.Mohamed ElBaradei, a leading opposition advocate of reform and democracy, said Morsi's rule was ``no different'' from that of former President Hosni Mubarak, whose authoritarian regime was toppled in an uprising nearly two years ago. ``In fact, it is perhaps even worse,'' the No

World News Dec. 6, 2012

The South Korean economy grew at the slowest pace in more than three years in the third quarter on faltering facility investment, the central bank said Thursday, raising chances that the full-year growth will likely miss the bank's 2.4 percent estimate.South Korea's gross domestic product (GDP), the broadest measure of economic performance, grew a revised 0.1 percent in the July-September period from three months earlier, down from a previous estimate of 0.2 percent, according to the Bank of Kor

Dec. 6, 2012

Archaeologists say they've found the remains of an ancient imperial palace in China near the tomb of emperor Qin Shi Huang, home of the famous terracotta army.The palace is the largest complex discovered so far in the huge 22-square-mile mausoleum of the 2nd century B.C. emperor located on the outskirts of the ancient capital city Xi'an in central China, Britain's The Guardian reported Monday.Eighteen courtyard-style houses surround a main building in the complex, estimated at about 700 yards lo

Culture Dec. 5, 2012