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November 12th Monday 2012
Israeli tanks 'hit Syrian units'

Israel's military says its tanks have scored "direct hits" on Syrian artillery units after Syrian mortar shells fell near an Israeli army post.

It comes a day after Israel fired warning shots after it said a Syrian shell hit another of its army posts on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The episode is the most serious between the two countries since the Arab-Israeli war of 1973.

Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war.

While the tank-fire is a significant development, it does not mean Israel is being dragged into Syria's civil war, says the BBC's Wyre Davies in Jerusalem.

In fact, he adds, Israeli political and military leaders say the tank-fire is exactly the opposite - a tough but clear message to Syria that Israel will not tolerate any more bullets and mortars landing in its territory.

After the recent incidents and concerns that Syria's conflict is spilling over to neighbouring countries, Israel has warned Syria that any additional shelling, whether deliberate or accidental, would elicit a tough response.

Israel has also filed a complaint with UN forces operating in the area of the Golan Heights. The area has been relatively peaceful over the past four decades despite Israel and Syria still officially being in a state of war.

Earlier, Western nations, Qatar and Turkey welcomed the creation of a new Syrian coalition that aims to unify opposition against President Bashar al-Assad.

The National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces was unveiled in Doha on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Syrian government jets and helicopters bombed the rebel-held town of Ras al-Ain, near the border with Turkey, sending civilians fleeing into the Turkish settlement of Ceylanpinar. Casualties were reported.

Observers and activists estimate that more than 36,000 people have been killed in the long-running uprising against President Assad.

Hundreds of thousands have sought refuge in neighbouring countries.

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[God Father]

Apple and HTC settle patent cases

Apple and Taiwanese phonemaker HTC have settled all their outstanding disputes over patents, ending a fight that began in March 2010.

The two firms also signed a 10-year licence agreement that will extend to current and future patents held by one another.

HTC competes with Apple, Samsung and others in phones and tablets.

Apple has been embroiled in a series of "patent wars" with phone makers and with arch-rival Google.

Unlike its rivals, HTC's sales have been in decline since the second half of 2011, despite having become a major global phone company by aligning itself to Google's Android platform.

The firm has upgraded its HTC One flagship phone and introduced two new models running Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 software.

"HTC is pleased to have resolved its dispute with Apple, so HTC can focus on innovation instead of litigation," said Peter Chou, the head of HTC.

The firm said recently it expects sales will be lower than had been expected at the end of the year as the Taiwanese smartphone maker has been finding it hard to emulate the success of its rivals.

HTC and Apple were fighting more than 20 cases in the world, according to the AFP news agency.

Apple won an order almost a year ago from the US International Trade Commission, which issued a "limited exclusion order" directing that HTC stop bringing offending smartphones into the US from April.

And in May, the US mobile carrier Sprint had to delay the introduction of a smartphone using Google's Android operating system after the devices were blocked by US customs due to an Apple complaint.

Ongoing cases

Apple and its rivals have been suing and countersuing for the past several years, accusing each other of copying designs and ideas in the lucrative smartphone space.

Apple and Samsung, for example, have filed legal cases against each other in more than 10 countries, each accusing the other of violating its patents.

A California court earlier this year awarded Apple $1.05bn (£652m) in damages against Samsung, after ruling several of its software and design technologies had been infringed, but the Korean firm is calling for a retrial.

And last week, a US judge dismissed Apple's case in which it alleged that Google's Motorola unit was seeking excessive royalty payments for patents.

[God Father]

Blackberry 10 expected in January

The next Blackberry smartphone, which manufacturer Research in Motion (RIM) hopes can revive its fortunes, will be introduced on 30 January.

RIM, once a leading name in smartphones, has struggled to keep up with the likes of Apple and Google in recent years.

The new range will run on Blackberry 10, an upgraded operating system.

RIM has not said when the smartphones, which have been set back by multiple delays, will be available to buy.

The devices were set to be launched late this year, but in June the company announced a delay - which means it will miss the critical holiday shopping period.

However, news of the January launch has buoyed investors - shares in the Canadian company rose 5.5% ahead of trading on Monday.

The company said that it will release two models: one with a touchscreen, the other with a Qwerty keyboard - seen as a key benefit among Blackberry fans.

Plummeting shares

In its more successful years, RIM's Blackberry products were considered pioneering devices due to their email capabilities and strong security.

Among young people, Blackberry Messenger - known to many as BBM - was very popular.

However, handsets from the likes of Apple, Samsung and HTC has seen the Blackberry fall way behind - blamed in part on its poor support for many of the most popular apps.

Since 2008, the company's share price has dropped by 90%.

"In building Blackberry 10, we set out to create a truly unique mobile computing experience that constantly adapts to your needs," RIM chief executive Thorsten Heins said.

"Our team has been working tirelessly to bring our customers innovative features combined with a best-in-class browser, a rich application ecosystem, and cutting-edge multimedia capabilities.

"All of this will be integrated into a user experience - the Blackberry Flow - that is unlike any smartphone on the market today."

According to the BBC's technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones, Blackberry Flow is designed to allow users to move seamlessly between a whole range of apps, heading from an email to calendar to a social network without returning to a home screen.

In an interview with the BBC last month, Mr Heins said users should not "underestimate" the new handsets' potential in the market.

[God Father]

Skyfall soars at US box office

James Bond's Skyfall has taken a record $87.8m (£55m) in its opening weekend at the North American box office.

The third instalment starring Daniel Craig outperformed the $67.5m (£42m) US debut of 2008's Quantum of Solace, the franchise's previous best opening.

Skyfall took over the top spot from Disney's animated comedy, Wreck-It Ralph, which earned $33.1m (£20.7m).

In third place, Denzel Washington's Flight earned $15.1m (£9.4m).

Skyfall was the weekend's only new wide release but Steven Spielberg's Lincoln had a huge start in a small number of cinemas.

Starring Daniel Day-Lewis as the 16th President, it earned $900,000 (£566,000) in just 11 locations with average ticket sales of $81,818 (£51,501) per theatre.

By comparison, Skyfall earned an average of $25,050 (£15,765) at each of the 3,505 locations at which it was screened.

Skyfall has now earned $518.6m (£326.5m) worldwide since its release at the end of October.

The 23rd Bond film also more than doubled the $40.8m (£25.6m) debut of Craig's first Bond movie in 2006, Casino Royale.

Rory Bruer, head of distribution at Sony, which produces the Bond films along with MGM said: "It's quite a testament to Bond, considering it's the 50th anniversary.

"What a great anniversary present," he added.

Bond, one of Hollywood's most-enduring franchises debuted 50 years ago with Dr No and over the last two decades the films have earned an average of around $200m (£125m) each domestically in inflation-adjusted dollars.

While Skyfall marks a new high for Bond's opening-weekend revenue, it is still a way off the biggest audiences 007 has ever drawn.

Adjusted for inflation, Sean Connery's 1965 Bond adventure, Thunderball would have taken in an estimated $508m (£319.8m) domestically in today's dollars, while Goldfinger released in 1964 was close behind, earning $444m (£279m), according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.

It was an impressive weekend at the US box office with overall domestic revenues at $172m (£108m) - a 26% increase on the same weekend last year.

So far this year, domestic revenues are at $9.1 billion (£5.7b), up 4.3% from 2011, according to Hollywood.com.

[God Father]

Japan economy enters contraction

Japan's economy contracted in the July to September quarter, as a global economic slowdown and anti-Japan protests in China hurt its exports, while domestic consumption remained subdued.

Gross domestic product (GDP) contracted 3.5% from a year earlier.

Compared with the previous three months, the economy contracted 0.9%.

The weak data is likely to put pressure on the government to boost stimulus measures to spur growth.

"There are risks from both domestic and external factors," said Tatsushi Shikano, senior economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities in Tokyo.

"As such, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) will stand ready to ease monetary policy again, and it would not surprise me if the BOJ eased again by the end of this year."

Heading for recession?

Japan's economy, the world's third-largest, has been trying to recover from last year's earthquake and tsunami, which caused widespread destruction in the country.

However, its recovery has been hampered by a combination of factors.

A slowdown in key markets, such as the US and eurozone has hurt demand for its exports, one of the biggest drivers of Japanese growth.

Slowing growth and anti-Japan protests in China - Japan's biggest trading partner - have further impacted its export sector.

To add to its woes, the debt crisis in the eurozone and weak recovery in the US have seen many investors flock to safe-haven assets such as the yen, resulting in the Japanese currency strengthening against the US dollar and the euro.

The yen has risen 5% against the US dollar since March this year and 8.5% against the euro during that period.

That makes Japanese goods more expensive for American and European consumers, hurting the earnings of the country's exporters.

To make matters worse, attempts by policymakers to boost domestic demand have had little effect. Private consumption fell 0.5% in the July to September quarter, from the previous three months.

Analysts said that given these factors the economy was likely to shrink further in the current quarter and enter a technical recession.

"The decline in exports seems large. Consumption and capital expenditure were also weak, showing that both external and domestic demand are weak," said Yasuo Yamamoto, senior economist at Mizuho Research Institute in Tokyo.

"Economic data deteriorated sharply from September, and this means Japan is already in recession," he added.

Focus on yen

Faced with slowing external and domestic demand, Japan's central bank has taken various steps to try and spur growth.

Earlier this month, the BOJ extended its asset purchase programme by 11 trillion yen ($138bn; £86bn). Under the programme, the central bank buys bonds to keep long-term borrowing costs down.

It also said that it will offer unlimited loans to banks to encourage lending in an effort to boost domestic consumption.

However, analysts said the measures were unlikely to have a major effect, not least because firms were holding back expansion plans in the wake of an uncertain economic environment.

"There is very little demand for credit. In fact Japanese firms are holding back on capital expenditure," Junko Nishioka, the chief economist of RBS Securities in Tokyo, told the BBC.

Ms Nishioka added that policymakers instead needed to focus on measures that will help weaken the yen, as the uncertain global economic environment was likely to see the Japanese currency, which is seen by some as a safe-haven asset in such times, remain strong.

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[God Father]

Gulf states back Syria opposition

Six Gulf states have recognised a new Syrian opposition coalition as the country's "legitimate representative".

The National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces was unveiled in Doha on Sunday, aimed at uniting the various factions seeking to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.

Western nations and Turkey welcomed the coalition's creation.

The 22-member Arab League later recognised the group as the "legitimate representative" of Syria's opposition.

Meeting in Cairo late on Monday, Arab League foreign ministers released a statement calling on other anti-Assad groups to join the opposition coalition.

However the group stopped short of giving it full recognition as the representative of the Syrian people.

Some members of the League, such as Iraq and Lebanon, were still "not fully supportive of the Syrian revolt", and are reluctant to delegitimise Mr Assad, an unnamed Arab League official told Reuters.

Meanwhile, Israel's military said its tanks had scored "direct hits" on Syrian artillery units after Syrian mortar shells fell near an Israeli army post on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights for the second consecutive day.

A complaint had been filed with UN forces operating in the area, it added, after what correspondents described as the most serious episode between the two countries since the Arab-Israeli war of 1973.

Elsewhere, Syrian government aircraft bombed the rebel-held town of Ras al-Ain, near the border with Turkey.

Both jets and helicopters targeted the town, sending civilians fleeing into the Turkish settlement of Ceylanpinar. Casualties were reported.

Nato has said it will do what it takes to protect and defend Turkey - one of the alliance's member states.

Over the last week, there has been some suggestion it might supply Turkey with Patriot surface-to-air missiles in order to help secure the border.

"Turkey can rely on Nato solidarity, we have more plans in place to defend and protect Turkey, our ally, if needed," Secretary General Anders Rasmussen told reporters in Prague, without elaborating.

Observers and activists estimate that more than 36,000 people have been killed in the long-running uprising against President Assad. Hundreds of thousands have sought refuge in neighbouring countries.

International recognition

"The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) declares its recognition of the Syrian national coalition... as the legitimate representative of the brotherly Syrian people," Abdulatif al-Zayani, the GCC's secretary general, said in a statement.

The GCC comprises Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait.

Western and regional powers have in recent weeks put pressure on a hitherto fractious Syrian opposition to create a unified, credible body that could become a conduit for all financial and possibly military aid.

The Syrian National Council (SNC), the previously dominant opposition umbrella group which is widely viewed as divided and ineffective, will control 22 of the 60 seats on the National Coalition's leadership council.

The new coalition's president will be Moaz al-Khatib, a former imam of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus who fled Syria this year.

US state department spokesman Mark Toner the US was looking forward "to supporting the National Coalition as it charts a course toward the end of Assad's bloody rule".

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said the move was a "milestone in forming a broad and representative opposition that reflects the full diversity of the Syrian people".

Western efforts to support the Syrian opposition have been hampered by Russia and China, which have blocked three UN Security Council resolutions seeking to pressure Mr Assad to end the conflict.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmed Davutoglu said the international community had "no excuse any more" not to support the opposition.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said only that his country supported a political transition "led by the Syrian people as soon as possible."

Russia said the National Coalition should seek "a peaceful resolution of the conflict by Syrians themselves, without external interference, through dialogue and negotiations".

Mr Khatib, 52, left for Cairo in July after several periods of detention by the Syrian authorities for criticising President Assad. He is seen as a moderate.

"We demand freedom for every Sunni, Alawite, Ismaili (Shia), Christian, Druze, Assyrian ... and rights for all parts of the harmonious Syrian people," he said after being elected president of the National Coalition.

The group, formed after a week of talks in Doha, will have two vice-presidents - prominent dissident Riad Seif and the leading female secular activist, Suhair al-Atassi.

Delegates said the leadership council would include representation for ethnic Kurds, Christians, Alawites and women. There will also be a military council that will reportedly include the Free Syrian Army (FSA).

[God Father]

US secession bids after Obama win

More than 100,000 Americans have petitioned the White House to allow their states to secede from the US, after President Barack Obama's re-election.

The appeals were filed on the White House's We the People website.

Most of the 20 states with petitions voted for Republican Mitt Romney.

The US constitution contains no clause allowing states to leave the union. By Monday night the White House had not responded.

In total, more than 20 petitions have been filed. One for Texas has reached the 25,000-signature threshold at which the White House promises a response.

'Blatant abuses'

The last time states officially seceded, the US Civil War followed.

Most of the petitions merely quote the opening line of America's Declaration of Independence from Britain, in which America's founders stated their right to "dissolve the political bands" and form a new nation.

Currently, the most popular petition is from Texas, which voted for Mr Romney by some 15 percentage points more than it did for the Democratic incumbent.

The text complains of "blatant abuses" of Americans' rights.

It cites the Transportation Security Administration, whose staff have been accused of intrusive screening at airports.