First Curved OLED TVs To Go On Sale

LG Electronics says it will begin deliveries of curved OLED television sets next month, making it the first to offer such a product to the public. The use of organic light-emitting diodes allows screens to be made thinner and more flexible than before. The 55in (140cm) model will cost 15m won ($13,550; £8,725) and is initially limited to sales in South Korea. One analyst said that being first to market gave LG "bragging rights", but suggested demand would be limited. LG Electronics...

Read More

Second Ricin Suspect Everett Dutschke Due In Court

A Mississippi martial arts instructor is due in court on charges relating to ricin-laced letters that were sent to President Obama, a senator and a judge. James Everett Dutschke, 41, has been charged with possessing a biological agent with intent to use as a weapon. He was detained on Sunday, days after police arrested and then released another man, Paul Kevin Curtis. Investigators, some in hazardous materials suits, searched Mr Dutschke's home, business and vehicles. The Tupelo man had reportedly been under surveillance. According...

Read More

NBA Player Jason Collins Comes Out As Gay

US basketball player Jason Collins has come out as gay, the first active male athlete in a major American professional team sport to do so. He declared his sexuality in an article for Sports Illustrated which began: "I'm a 34-year-old NBA center. I'm black. And I'm gay." Collins said he had struggled with his sexuality for years. Former NBA player John Amaechi came out as gay in 2007, but he had already retired. Former US President Bill Clinton was among those who sent messages of...

Read More

Deadly Car Bombs Hit Shia Provinces In Iraq

At least 18 people have been killed and dozens injured by five car bombs in Shia-majority provinces of southern Iraq, officials say. In the deadliest attack, two bombs went off in the town of Amara, killing at least nine people and wounding dozens. An army raid on a Sunni anti-government protest camp last week has sparked a wave of violence. On Saturday Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki said "evil" sectarian conflict was returning to Iraq. Mr Maliki said sectarianism was again plaguing...

Read More

Syrian PM Survives Car Bomb Attack

Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi has survived a car bomb attack in the capital, Damascus, state media say. The blast in the capital's western Mazzeh district targeted Mr Halqi's convoy, state TV said, causing a number of casualties. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based activist group, said one of Mr Halqi's bodyguards was among several others killed. It is unclear whether the blast was a suicide bombing or a planted device. State television carried a brief interview...

Read More

Powerful Blast Rocks Central Prague

A large explosion has damaged a building in the centre of the Czech capital Prague. The area around the explosion in Divadelni St was sealed off by police. At least 35 people were injured by the blast, emergency services say, one of them seriously. Prague's mayor told Czech radio three people may be trapped in the rubble. Police say that the blast, which blew the windows out of nearby buildings, was most likely caused by a gas leak. A strong smell of gas was reported before and after...

Read More

Climbers And Guides Fight On Everest

Police in Nepal are investigating an alleged fight between two famous European climbers and their Nepalese mountain guides on Mount Everest. Switzerland's Ueli Steck and Simone Moro from Italy were nearing Camp Three at 7,470m (24,500ft) when the incident occurred. The fight allegedly broke out after the pair ignored orders to hold their climb while the Sherpas were rigging ropes. The guides reportedly attacked the pair after they returned to their tents. Following the incident,...

Read More

Botswana President Ian Khama Wounded By Cheetah

Botswana President Ian Khama has had stitches in his face after being scratched by a cheetah, officials say. The animal was reportedly being fed in its enclosure at an army barracks when it jumped up and scratched Mr Khama, who was standing nearby. The incident was "a freak accident, but not an attack", government spokesman Jeff Ramsay told local media. Mr Khama's injuries were minor and there were "no real security implications", the official added. The incident is said to have happened...

Read More

Ghanaians Ban Spirit Child Killing

Local leaders in northern Ghana have announced the abolition of the ritual killing of babies born with physical disabilities, who were believed to have been possessed by evil spirits. "Spirit children" were thought to have been a sign of impending misfortune and given a poisonous drink to kill them. One campaigner told the BBC that improved healthcare and education meant such beliefs were becoming less common. Activist Raymond Ayine welcomed the ban, which covers seven towns. But he said he could...

Read More

Google Acquires News Stream Wavii

Google has acquired news stream service Wavii for an estimated $30m (£18m). Wavii, which was launched last year, offers customised news feed to users, summarising news stories, tweets and blogs related to their interests. Apple had also been keen to buy the start-up. According to reports, it wanted to incorporate the technology in the Siri function of its devices. Last month, Yahoo acquired a news summarisation app, Summly, for "dozens of millions" of pounds. Yahoo subsequently added the...

Read More

Man Charged Over US Ricin Letters

A man has been arrested in Mississippi and charged in connection with the sending of letters containing ricin to President Obama, a senator and a judge. Everett Dutschke was detained at home in Tupelo on Saturday and handed over to US Marshals, police said. Mr Dutschke has been charged with possessing a biological agent with intent to use as a weapon. He has links to a man against whom charges were filed and later dropped, as well as the senator and judge. Ricin is a naturally occurring...

Read More

Thirteen Die In Mexico Prison Battle

At least 13 people are dead after a battle broke out between prisoners at a jail in the central Mexican state of San Luis Potosi. A group of inmates used homemade knives and picks to attack rivals at the La Pila prison, the state attorney general's office was quoted as saying. Authorities took several hours to bring the fighting under control. Deadly outbreaks of violence are common in Mexico's overcrowded jails, which house inmates from rival drug gangs. Dozens of people were injured - some...

Read More

Greek MPs To Vote On Mass Job Cuts

The Greek parliament will vote on Sunday on proposals which would see 15,000 state employees lose their jobs by the end of next year. The bill is part of continuing moves by the centre-right government to cut costs and ensure more bailout money from international creditors. The law is a condition for Greece to receive the next tranche of loans worth 8.8bn euros (£7.4bn; $11.4bn). Trade unions have called a protest in the streets outside parliament. Although debate on the measure began on Sunday morning, a vote was not expected until midnight. The...

Read More

Bombs Target Pakistan Politicians

Bomb attacks by the Taliban on the campaign offices of election candidates have left at least eight people dead and 23 injured in north-west Pakistan. The first attack was in the city of Kohat; the second in the suburbs of Peshawar. The Taliban have vowed to continue a campaign of attacks against political parties they see as secular. Dozens of people have been killed in recent days in bomb blasts in the run-up to the general election on 11 May. At least five people were killed and more than 10 injured in Kohat by the blast outside the office...

Read More

Boeing 787 Dreamliner Returns To Service In Ethiopia Flight

An Ethiopian Airlines 787 Dreamliner has flown from Addis Ababa to Nairobi, the first commercial flight by the Boeing aircraft since all 787s were grounded in January. The 50 planes around the world were grounded due to battery malfunctions that saw one 787 catch fire in the US. Over the past week teams of Boeing engineers have been fitting new batteries to the aircraft. This was after aviation authorities approved the revamped battery design. The Ethiopian Airlines plane took off at 09:45 local...

Read More

New Italian Grand Coalition Government Sworn In

A new Italian government has been sworn in at the presidential Quirinal Palace in Rome. Democratic Party Deputy Leader (PD), Enrico Letta, becomes prime minister at the head of a "grand coalition" including Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom party (PDL). The swearing-in signals the end of two months of political deadlock. Away from the ceremony, outside the PM's office, two police officers were injured in a shooting incident. One was shot in the neck and is described as being in a serious...

Read More

Collapsed Dhaka Building Owner Held

The owner of a factory building that collapsed in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, killing hundreds of people, has been arrested. Local government minister Jahangir Kabir Nanak said Mohammed Sohel Rana was arrested at the Indian border. He had been in hiding since the Rana Plaza collapsed on Wednesday. Rescuers are in a race against time to reach remaining survivors as officials prepare to bring in heavy machinery to move the wreckage. Mr Nanak said that Mohammed Sohel Rana was arrested near the...

Read More

Blaze Kills 38 At Psychiatric Hospital Near Moscow

A blaze has engulfed a wing of a psychiatric hospital in a village near Moscow, killing 38 people, with just three survivors, officials say. Fire broke out in Hospital No 14 in Ramenskiy shortly after 02:00 (22:00 GMT Thursday), when most of the victims are believed to have been asleep. Investigators say an alarm went off but the duty nurse only managed to evacuate two patients because of heavy smoke. Reports suggest a patient who ignored a smoking ban may have started the fire. It quickly...

Read More

Dhaka Building Collapse: Fears For Hundreds Still Missing

Hundreds of people are still missing after Wednesday's collapse of a building in Bangladesh which killed over 300 people, local officials say. More than 40 people have been rescued since Thursday from the Rana Plaza building near Dhaka, which housed clothes factories. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called for special prayers to be held across the country later for the victims. Angry protesters have taken to the streets of Dhaka for a second day. They are demanding the authorities arrest...

Read More

South Korea To Withdraw Staff From Kaesong Zone In North

South Korea says it is withdrawing its remaining workers from a jointly-run industrial complex in North Korea. The announcement came from the unification minister shortly after Pyongyang rejected an offer of talks. North Korea blocked access to the Kaesong zone - once a symbol of inter-Korean co-operation - earlier this month and later pulled its workers out. The move followed weeks of high tension in the wake of North Korea's third nuclear test in February. "Because our nationals remaining in the Kaesong industrial zone are experiencing greater...

Read More

Growing Evidence Of Chemical Weapons Use in Syria - UK

There is "limited but growing" evidence that Syrian government troops have used chemical weapons, UK Prime Minister David Cameron says. "It is extremely serious, this is a war crime," Mr Cameron said. On Thursday, the White House said that US intelligence agencies believed "with varying degrees of confidence" that Syria had used the nerve agent sarin on a "small scale". Syrian officials have denounced the allegations as "lies". Opposition activists and state media meanwhile report fierce fighting...

Read More

Kidnapped Syrian Bishops Remain Missing

Two Syrian Orthodox bishops remain missing two days after being kidnapped, with each side in the civil war blaming others for the snatching. The whereabouts of the two prominent clergymen, Greek Orthodox Bishop Paul Yazigi and Syriac Orthodox Bishop John Ibrahim, remain unknown, despite some reports to the contrary, Greek Orthodox Bishop Mousa Khoury said. There have been several kidnappings of Christian clergymen in Syria but the two bishops are the most senior church figures who have been abducted since the beginning of the uprising. The Syrian...

Read More

21 Dead in Clash with 'Gangsters' in Western China

At least 21 people were killed on Tuesday in fighting in far western China between security officers and “gangsters,” according to a propaganda bureau spokeswoman for the regional government of Xinjiang, where the conflict took place. Six of those killed were gangsters, and eight more people in the gang were detained during the violence, according to accounts from the bureau and a report Wednesday on a regional news Web site, Tianshan. The other 15 killed were police officers and community watch workers or volunteers. They died after the large...

Read More

Bangladesh Factory Building Collapse Kills Nearly 100

A block housing garment factories and shops collapsed in Bangladesh on Wednesday, killing nearly 100 people and injuring more than a thousand, officials said. Firefighters and troops dug frantically through the rubble at the eight-storey Rana Plaza building in Savar, 30 km (20 miles) outside Dhaka. Television showed young women workers, some apparently semi-conscious, being pulled out. One fireman told Reuters about 2,000 people were in the building when the upper floors slammed down onto those...

Read More

Suspect in 5 Killings in Illinois Reportedly Nabbed After High-speed Chase

Five people were reportedly killed in a shooting in Manchester, Ill., Wednesday morning prompting the closure of three area schools. The suspect attempted to run from the scene, got into a high-speed chase with police and shots were fired while the suspect was taken into custody. One person was injured in the shooting, but the injuries remain unclear. The suspect, the station reports, is in custody. Police said that they do not believe another suspect is at large. The crime scene was described...

Read More

China Confirms 102 H7N9 Cases, 20 Deaths

During the 24-hour period ending at 4 p.m. on Sunday, China confirmed six new cases of human H7N9 avian influenza, including five in Zhejiang and one in Jiangsu. The National Health and Family Planning Commission said in its daily update on H7N9 cases that a total of 102 H7N9 cases have been reported in China, including 20 that have ended in death. Of the total, 12 H7N9 patients have been discharged from hospitals after receiving treatment, and the other 70 patients are being treated in designated hospitals, according to the commission. A total...

Read More

At Least 185 Killed in Nigeria Attack

Fighting between Nigeria's military and Islamic extremists killed at least 185 people in a fishing community in the nation's far northeast, officials said Sunday, an attack that saw insurgents fire rocket-propelled grenades and soldiers spray machine-gun fire into neighborhoods filled with civilians. The fighting in Baga began Friday and lasted for hours, sending people fleeing into the arid scrublands surrounding the community on Lake Chad. By Sunday, when government officials finally felt safe enough to see the destruction, homes, businesses...

Read More

Assad's Forces Kill 85 in Damascus Suburb, Activists Say

Syrian forces and militiamen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad killed at least 85 people when they stormed a Damascus suburb after five days of fighting, opposition activists in the area said on Sunday. There was no immediate confirmation of the activists' account of what they described as a "massacre", including of women and children, at Jdeidet al-Fadel. Syrian authorities have banned most independent media since the uprising began in 2011. Syria's Sana state news agency said the military "inflicted big losses on terrorists in Jdeidet al-Fadel...

Read More

Reese Witherspoon Arrested for Disorderly Conduct

Oscar-winning actress Reese Witherspoon was arrested in Atlanta for alleged disorderly conduct after her husband, talent agent James Toth, was stopped by police on suspicion of drunken driving, online Hollywood magazine Variety reported on Sunday. Witherspoon, 37, was arrested early on Friday after she quarreled with officers who had taken Toth, 42, into custody during a traffic stop of the couple on Peachtree Street, Variety said, citing an Atlanta police report. Toth, who was behind the wheel,...

Read More

USA Today Founder Allen Neuharth Dead

Allen H. Neuharth, who revolutionized American newspapering by founding USA Today with its colorful layouts and concise storytelling that influenced many media empires, died Friday in his home in Cocoa Beach, Florida, the newspaper said. He was 89. "The longtime newspaperman, media executive and columnist died after sustaining injuries in a fall at his home," USA Today said. Neuharth was a former chairman of Gannett, the publisher of USA Today and 81 other newspapers, who made journalistic history...

Read More

Amazon to Pilot TV Shows Online

Fourteen pilot shows - including Alpha House and Zombieland - are to be put to the public vote on Lovefilm and Amazon.com. Viewers can submit feedback influencing which shows get made into full series. The 14 shows are made by independent production companies and produced by Amazon Studios, the film and series production arm of Amazon. "This is the first time Amazon Studios has done this," said Simon Morris, Lovefilm's chief marketing officer. Eight adult comedies and six children's animation series will be put to the public vote. The shows will...

Read More

Scores Die In Rural China Earthquake

A powerful earthquake has killed more than 150 people and injured several thousand in China's rural south west, officials say. The 6.6-magnitude tremor sent people fleeing from buildings across Sichuan province, which was devastated by a massive quake five years ago. Villages close to the epicentre in Lushan county were left in ruins. Thousands of troops have been sent to Sichuan, and Premier Li Keqiang is also travelling to the area. "The current most urgent issue is grasping the first 24 hours...

Read More

Ghana Impounds Faulty Condoms

More than 110 million Chinese-made condoms have been seized in Ghana after laboratory tests revealed they were faulty, Ghanaian officials have said. "There are holes in them and... the condoms burst easily," a Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) spokesman told the BBC. The condoms were being distributed free as part of an HIV/Aids prevention campaign by the Ghana Health Service. About 200 million of the faulty condoms are believed to have been imported into the country. The condom packaging is...

Read More

South Sudan Army Killed Nurses

Five health workers have been killed when South Sudan soldiers attacked a hospital in revenge for the deaths of eight members of the security forces, the local MP has told the BBC. David Mayo said the fighting was still going on and urged the army to be withdrawn. Local community leaders confirm that the hospital in the village of Lorema, Eastern Equatoria state, was attacked. But the state governor denied the reports. Louis Obong told the BBC that no hospital had been attacked and the security...

Read More