Apple takes on Samsung in new legal fight on phones

CALIFORNIA: Apple Inc raised the stake in an intensifying global patent battle with Samsung Electronics by targeting the latest model using Google’s fast growing Android software, a move which may affect other Android phone makers.

Apple has asked a federal court in California to block Samsung from selling its new Galaxy Nexus smartphones, which use Google’s newest version of Android, called Ice Cream Sandwich, alleging four patent violations including new features such as a voice-command search function.

Galaxy Nexus, the official debut of which was delayed by Samsung in October to pay respect to Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs, is the first phone running on the newest Android version before the platform is widely adopted by hardware manufacturers such as HTC Corp and Motorola Mobility. HTC and Motorola are also in separate patent disputes with Apple.

In a lawsuit filed last week in San Jose, Apple said the Galaxy Nexus infringes on patents underlying features customers expect from Apple products. Those include the ability to unlock phones by sliding an image and to search for information by voice.

“Google cannot deny its undivided responsibility for any infringement findings. A preliminary injunction would not prohibit the sale of a Galaxy nexus just because it’s called Galaxy Nexus or looks like one: it’s all about which patents it infringes on,” said independent patent expert Florian Meuller.

“I am absolutely certain that…for the preliminary injunction motion the Galaxy Nexus was singled out because it’s so new, and important.”

Samsung said in a statement on Monday that it is aware of the filing by Apple in the California court.

“We continue to assert our intellectual property rights and defend against Apple’s claims to ensure our continued innovation and growth in the mobile communications business,” Samsung said in a statement.

With the new lawsuit, Apple is opening up another legal assault on the South Korea-based company after taking Samsung to the same court in April of last year. In the earlier case, Apple alleged that Samsung illegally copied iPhone and iPad design features and the look of its screen icons. That case is still going on, although in December Apple lost a bid for a preliminary bar against Samsung for selling Galaxy phones and tablets.

Apple acknowledged the setback in the new action and said now it is suing over new products and different patents.

In addition to the California cases, Apple and Samsung are waging more than 20 legal fights in at least 10 countries in their war for global leadership of smartphone and tablet markets. AGENCIES

Europe’s first rocket to woo satellites launches

KOUROU: Engineers were carrying out the final checks for the maiden launch on Monday of a new European rocket, Vega, aimed at capturing the market for deploying small satellites.
  
With 90 minutes before the launch window, all lights in the control room at Europe’s space base here were green and weather reports were good, an AFP reporter there said.
  
Thirty metres (100 feet) long and three metres in diameter, Vega is designed to hoist loads ranging from 300 kilos (660 pounds) to 2.5 tonnes into orbits from 300 to 1,500 kilometres (187-937 miles) depending on mass.
  
The lightweight launcher complements the heavyweight Ariane 5, capable in its beefed-up version of lifting more than 20 tonnes, and the mid-range Soyuz, the Russian-Soviet veteran deployed to Kourou last year under a deal between Russia and the European Space Agency (ESA).
  
Development of Vega dates back to 1998. It has cost 776 million euros (1.008 billion dollars), of which Italy has contributed nearly 60 percent.
  
Monday’s mission, whose launch window opens at 1000 GMT, is a “qualification” flight with a scientific payload. AGENCIES

Bomb targets Israeli embassy car in New Delhi, 2 injured

NEW DELHI: Bombers on Monday targeted staff at Israel’s embassies in India with a bomb going in a car.

Israeli officials said the embassy staff was also targeted in Georgia, however, the explosive device was defused.

There was no immediate word from Israel or India on casualties in the New Delhi blast.

Indian officials reported two people wounded. 

Tunis to host meeting on Syria on Feb. 24

CAIRO: Tunisia will host a meeting of the “Friends of Syria” which will group nations seeking to build an international agreement on how to end violence in Syria, Arab ministers said on Sunday.  

“I welcome Tunisia’s invitation for this international conference on Feb. 24. I think it will be a good opportunity to try to create a clear international direction to help the Syrian people to exit the crisis. We will work for this meeting to succeed,” Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani told Arab ministers meeting in Cairo.  

Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Ben Adessalam said the “Friends of Syria” meeting would include Arab, regional and other international states. AGENCIES

Saif Gaddafi to be moved to Tripoli, then tried

TRIPOLI: Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son and one-time heir apparent of toppled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, will be moved to a Tripoli prison within two months and then face trial, the chairman of Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) said on Sunday.

Three months after his capture in Libya’s Sahara desert dressed as a Bedouin tribesman, Saif al-Islam remains at a secret location in the northwestern town of Zintan, reflecting a wider problem of powerful local militias and a weak central government in the North African country.

In an interview with Reuters, Mustafa Abdul Jalil said authorities were completing the construction of a prison in central Tripoli, begun under the late Muammar Gaddafi, to which Saif al-Islam would be moved.

“At this moment he is being interrogated and his trial will begin as soon as the prison facility is ready,” Abdul Jalil said. “I can’t give an exact timeframe in terms of weeks or months for this but it will not be more than two months.”

Zintan commanders say they have kept Saif al-Islam in their remote mountain town, rather than hand him over to the NTC in Tripoli, to spare him the fate of his father.

The older Gaddafi was killed by his captors shortly after being seized in October, his decomposing body put on public display in a Misrata meat locker before given an inglorious secret burial in the Libyan desert.

Saif al-Islam, a fluent English speaker educated at the London School of Economics, was seen as a the Western-friendly acceptable face of Libya before transforming from liberal reformer to a key figure in his father’s fight against rebels seeking his overthrow.

He now faces trial in Tripoli on charges of murder and rape and could face the death penalty if convicted. The International Criminal Court in The Hague has also indicted him for crimes against humanity but Libya says he will be tried in his home country.

“By God’s will, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi will receive a fair trial and also all those who are accused in this regard,” Abdul Jalil said.

OFFSPRING’S SHADOW

A transitional government appointed in November is leading the country to elections in June but is struggling to restore services and impose order on a myriad of armed groups that toppled Gaddafi after 42 years in power.

And his offspring continue to cast a shadow over the oil-rich North African state.

Abdul Jalil said Niger had confiscated all communication devices belonging to Saif al-Islam’s brother Saadi, after he warned of a “coming uprising” in Libya by those opposed to the authorities now in power in Tripoli.

Saadi, who fled south to Niger in September, told Al-Arabiya television by telephone on Friday that he was in regular contact with people in Libya unhappy with the authorities put in place after the ousting and killing of his father.

That prompted Libya to urge Niger on Saturday to extradite Saadi, saying his comments threatened bilateral ties. But Niger said it could not hand over Saadi because he would face execution in Libya.

“First of all, the foreign minister of Niger and the prime minister of Niger were the ones to initiate contact with their counterparts and expressed their apology for what happened,” Abdul Jalil said. “I can confirm that the government of Niger has taken all measures and steps to confiscate all communication devices in his possession.”

Libya’s interim leaders last year approved a request to open an investigation into Saadi over the murder of a footballer who played for the national team in the 1980s.

“The prosecutor general has already sent an extradition request to bring Saadi back to Libya in light of the crime he committed in the field of sports in Libya. The legal and penal procedures in this regard will be followed,” he added. AGENCIES

White House: Matter of time before Assad falls

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama’s chief of staff says it’s only a matter of time before the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad collapses.

Jacob Lew says the U.S. and its allies have brought “serious financial pressure” on Syria and that Assad’s government is “feeling it.”

While the violence continues as rebels try to topple Assad, Lew says the transition “from tyranny to democracy is very hard.” Lew says the Syrian people “have to handle this in a way that works in Syria.”

Lew tells “Fox News Sunday” that “the brutality of the Assad regime is unacceptable and has to end.” He says the U.S. is pursuing “all avenues that we can” and that “there is no question that this regime will come to an end. The only question is when.” AGENCIES

Iran slams US, Israel on revolution anniversary

TEHRAN: Iranians, some holding placards declaring “Death to America” and “Death to Israel”, on Saturday marked the anniversary of their country’s 1979 Islamic revolution with mass marches and a speech by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
  
Tens of thousands of demonstrators congregated in cities across Iran under winter skies, state television showed.
  
The main rallying point was in Tehran, where Ahmadinejad was to address a crowd of around 30,000 in Azadi (Freedom) Square from a stage in front of which a full-scale model of a captured US spy drone was erected.
  
In an unusual break with tradition — and a pointed swipe at Israel — the Hamas prime minister of Gaza, Ismail Haniya, was to give a speech from the podium at Ahmadinejad’s side, in which he vowed that the Islamist movement would never recognise the Jewish state.
  
“They want us to recognise the Israeli occupation and cease resistance but, as the representative of the Palestinan people and in the name of all the world’s freedom seekers, I am announcing from Azadi Square in Tehran that we will never recognise Israel,” Haniya told the crowd.
  
“The resistance will continue until all Palestinian land, including Al-Quds (Jerusalem), has been liberated and all the refugees have returned,” he said.
  
His reassertion of the longstanding Hamas position is likely to complicate Palestinian efforts to form a unity government in the teeth of opposition from the Jewish state, which blacklists the Islamist group as a terrorist organisation.
  
The model drone and Haniya were clear signs of defiance by Iran’s regime as it confronts US-led Western economic sanctions and Israeli threats of military action against its controversial nuclear programme.
  
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Ahmadinejad and other Iranian officials have said they would not abandon their rights to the nuclear activities, which they maintain are exclusively non-military in nature.
  
The United States and Israel, however, see the nuclear programme as including research to build an atomic bomb that can fit into Iran’s ballistic missiles — a contention given some backing by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, three months ago.
  
The United States and the European Union have ratcheted up economic sanctions on Iran to an unprecedented level to try to force it to halt uranium enrichment and re-engage in long-stalled talks.
  
Iran has instead defiantly stepped up its enrichment activities, notably in a fortified mountain bunker near the shrine city of Qom designed to be bomb-proof.
  
Israel’s government, voicing concerns that Iran could shield its nuclear programme from attack by the end of this year, has fuelled speculation of imminent air strikes against its long-time foe.
  
Iran’s anniversary commemorations mark the day 33 years ago that a revolution led by clerics, students and dissidents overthrew the US-backed shah and installed an Islamic theocracy.
  
The United States cut off all diplomatic relations with Iran in 1980, after Islamic students stormed the US embassy in Tehran in November 1979 and took 52 Americans inside hostage in a crisis that lasted 444 days.
  
Demonstrators on Saturday marched towards rally points, many holding Iranian flags, pictures of Khamenei and his predecessor Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, or the placards saying “Death to America” and “Death to Israel”.
  
The US drone replica on display in Tehran was that of an unmanned stealth aircraft, a bat-winged RQ-170 Sentinel, which Iranian officials said they brought down by hacking its flight controls as it overflew their territory in December on a surveillance mission. AGENCIES

Moderate quake shakes Chile

WASHINGTON: A moderate earthquake measuring 5.9 shook central Chile late Friday, US researchers reported.
  
The epicenter of the tremor, which occurred at 11:58 pm local time (0258 GMT Saturday), was located 52 kilometers (32 miles) south southwest of the city of Concepcion, according to the US Geological Survey.
  
There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
  
The reading was based on the open-ended Moment Magnitude scale used by US seismologists, which measures the area of the fault that ruptured and the total energy released. AGENCIES

West offers words, only, as Syria killing rages

AMMAN/BEIRUT: Syrian government artillery barrages killed dozens of civilians in Homs on Thursday, activists said, as President Bashar al-Assad, bolstered by Russian support, ignored appeals from world leaders to halt the carnage.

The United Nations secretary-general condemned the “appalling brutality” of the operation to stamp out the revolt against Assad, and Turkey’s ambassador to the European Union warned of a slide into civil war that could inflame the region.

Diplomats from Western and Arab powers, lining up meetings that could mean some decisions soon, condemned Assad in strong language. But having ruled out military intervention, they were struggling to find a way to convince him to step down.

Syria’s powerful ally Russia, meanwhile, said no one should interfere in the country’s affairs.

In Homs, witnesses said makeshift hospitals were overflowing in besieged opposition areas with the dead and wounded from nearly a week of government bombardments and sniper fire.

Medical supplies and food were running out and, in the streets, some of the wounded had bled to death as it was too dangerous for rescuers to bring them to safety.

The Local Coordination Committees, an opposition group in Homs, put the death toll on Thursday alone as high as 110 by nightfall, though it remains impossible to verify such accounts:

“This number includes three families whose bodies were dug up from under the rubble of their homes, bodies brought to field hospitals and people who died their from their wounds today,” the group said in a statement sent to Reuters.

A Syrian doctor, struggling to treat the wounded at a field clinic in a mosque, delivered an emotional plea via YouTube video. Standing next to a bloody body on a table, the man, named only as Mohammed, said to the camera, and to the outside world:

“We appeal to the international community to help us transport the wounded. We wait for them here to die in mosques. I appeal to the United Nations and to international humanitarian organizations to stop the rockets from being fired on us.” AGENCIES

‘Avatar’ robot made in Japan

YOKOHAMA: A Japanese-developed robot that mimics the movements of its human controller is bringing the Hollywood blockbuster “Avatar” one step closer to reality.

Users of the TELESAR V don special equipment that allows them not only to direct the actions of a remote machine, but also to see, hear and feel the same things as their doppelganger android.

“When I put on the devices and move my body, I see my hands having turned into the robot hands. When I move my head, I get a different view from the one I had before,” said researcher Sho Kamuro.

“It’s a strange experience that makes you wonder if you’ve really become a robot,” he told AFP.

Professor Susumu Tachi, who specialises in engineering and virtual reality at Keio University’s Graduate School of Media Design, said systems attached to the operator’s headgear, vest and gloves send detailed instructions to the robot, which then mimics the user’s every move.

At the same time, an array of sensors on the android relays a stream of information which is converted into sensations for the user.

The thin polyester gloves the operator wears are lined with semiconductors and tiny motors to allow the user to “feel” what the mechanical hands are touching — a smooth or a bumpy surface as well as heat and cold.

The robot’s “eyes” are actually cameras capturing images that appear on tiny video screens in front of the user’s eyes, allowing them to see in three dimensions.

Microphones on the robot pick up sounds, while its speakers allow the operator to make his voice heard by those near the machine.

The TELESAR — TELexistence Surrogate Anthropomorphic Robot — is still a far cry from the futuristic creations of James Cameron’s “Avatar”, where US soldiers are able to remotely control the genetically engineered bodies of an extra-terrestrial race they wish to subdue.

But, says Tachi, it could have much more immediate — and benign — applications, such as working in high-risk environments, for example the inside of Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, though it is early days.

“I think further research and development could enable this to go into areas too dangerous for humans and do jobs that require human skills,” he said.

Japan’s famously advanced robot technology was found wanting during the crisis at Fukushima, where foreign expertise had to be called on for the machines that went inside reactor buildings as nuclear meltdowns began.

Tachi said a “safety myth” had grown up around atomic technology, preventing research on the kind of machines that could help in the wake of a disaster.

But he said his kind of robot technology could help with the long and difficult task of decommissioning reactors at Fukushima — a process that could take three decades.

A remote-controlled android that allows its user to experience what is happening far away may have more than just industrial applications, he added.

“This could be used to talk with your grandpa or grandma living in a remote place and deepen communications,” he said. AGENCIES

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