Fair Proxy Web

Samsung seeks U.S. probe of Sharp

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Samsung Electronics Co. said Thursday it filed a complaint with U.S. authorities over alleged unfair trade practices and patent infringement by Japanese rival Sharp Corp. involving liquid crystal display panels.

Samsung said in a statement that it filed the complaint with the United States International Trade Commission on December 21.

The Suwon, South Korea-based company claimed that Sharp and two U.S. subsidiaries engaged in unfair trade by importing and selling liquid crystal display products that infringe on four of Samsung’s U.S. patents. Samsung is the world’s largest maker of liquid crystal displays.

Osaka-based Sharp had no comment.

Samsung’s complaint came after Sharp earlier this month sued Samsung in a South Korean court, also alleging patent violations for liquid crystal displays. It demanded damages and a halt to manufacturing and sales of affected TVs and display panels.

In August, Sharp filed a similar lawsuit against Samsung in federal court in the U.S. state of Texas. Samsung said it was also pursuing federal lawsuits in Texas and Delaware against Sharp.

Samsung said its complaint with the trade commission calls for it to launch an investigation and order that Sharp products that allegedly infringe on Samsung’s patents — including LCD TVs, monitors, notebook computers and mobile phones — be kept out of the U.S. market.

Samsung has and will continue to vigorously protect itself against the infringement and unauthorized use of its intellectual property, Samsung said.

Separately, Samsung also said it asked the Tokyo District Court on Wednesday to prohibit the manufacture and sale in Japan of Sharp LCD TVs it claims incorporate technology that allegedly violates two Japanese patents owned by Samsung.

South Korean and Japanese electronics manufacturers have battled over alleged patent infringements in recent years amid technological advances and intensifying competition for products like hot selling flat screen TVs. E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

found here.

Two European diplomats expelled from Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Two European diplomats who went to one of Afghanistan’s most volatile regions have been asked to leave Afghanistan, officials said Tuesday.

Aleem Siddique, a spokesman for the United Nations mission, said a U.N. employee traveled to the volatile southern province of Helmand on Monday along with a member of the European Union. Siddique said the Afghan government asked the U.N. employee to leave, claiming he was detrimental to national security.

Other officials told The Associated Press the Afghan government has asked a U.N. employee and a European Union employee to leave Afghanistan.

Siddique said the two officials had been talking to all people on the ground in Helmand to help ensure the country’s stability but denied they were talking to Taliban militants.

We don’t talk to the Taliban, full stop, Siddique said.

President Hamid Karzai’s spokesman, Humayun Hamidzada, said the two were involved in some activities that were not their jobs.

We do not believe there is any basis for any U.N. official to need to leave the country, and we’re making this position clear to the government of Afghanistan, Siddique said.

We see this as a misunderstanding of what people were doing in Helmand, he said. There is a miscommunication between the authorities in Helmand province and the central government, and that’s what we’re trying to clear up.

Karzai’s spokesman earlier said two foreigners — apparently the U.N. and European Union officials — had been arrested.

But because the two have diplomatic immunity they were never technically arrested and instead have been asked to leave, officials told AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

Siddique said one of those arrested is a Briton from Northern Ireland and the other is Irish. He said the U.N. was told that their presence was detrimental to the national security of the country.

No officials from the European Union could be reached for comment.

Siddique said the U.N. employee was assisting the government of Afghanistan with their delivery of governance in Helmand province.

He said the U.N. mission was optimistic the matter could be resolved without the U.N. official having to leave the country, though two other officials told AP the two would leave the country within 48 hours.

Helmand province has been the scene of the heaviest fighting between Taliban militants and NATO and Afghan forces this year. It is also the world’s largest poppy-growing region. British military forces operate throughout the province.

The Afghan government, and particularly Karzai, has voiced a growing interest in meeting with Taliban leaders to try to persuade them to join the government as a way to end the insurgency. One town in northern Helmand province — Musa Qala — fell to British, Afghan and U.S. forces earlier this month after being in Taliban hands since last February.

Afghan officials said at least one key militant leader decided to stop supporting the Taliban and instead aligned himself with the Afghan government, greatly assisting the battle to retake Musa Qala.
found here.

Police: Pair arrested in slayings of six

(CNN) — A man and a woman have been arrested in connection with the deaths of six people — believed to be three generations of the same family — in a rural area outside Seattle, Washington, on Wednesday, authorities said.

The pair, who are in their late 20s, were being taken to the King County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday evening, deputies told CNN.

The Christmas Eve killings apparently took place at a house in Carnation, about 20 miles east of Seattle.

The pair have not confessed to the deaths and do not yet have access to lawyers, King County Sheriff’s Sgt. John Urquhart said about 7:40 p.m. ET.

This couple was among the people that showed up at the [crime] scene, Urquhart said. And as we got to talking to them, we developed probable cause and made the arrests.

The couple is expected to be charged with six counts of first-degree homicide, he said.

Urquhart said that the suspects knew the victims and that investigators have not yet determined a motive for the killings.

The victims were a man and a woman in their 50s, another man and woman in their 30s, and two children: a 6-year-old girl and a 3-year-old boy.

They are believed to be three generations of the same family, and they appeared to have been shot sometime Monday, Urquhart said.

The bodies were found in and around the house, which is on a residential property in Carnation, Urquhart said. The house sits among a cluster of residences and is at the end of a long dirt road on the edge of woods.

A colleague of one of the victims came by to check on the family Wednesday morning after one of the victims didn’t show up for work, King County Sheriff’s Sgt. Jim Laing said.

The colleague called deputies, who initially found the bodies of two adults and a child inside a house on the property.

A subsequent search revealed the other bodies.

Authorities earlier ruled out murder-suicide in the deaths. E-mail to a friend

found here.

Deadly landslide hits dinner party

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Soldiers, police and volunteers dug for survivors of landslides that killed as many as 78 people Wednesday in western Indonesia, including dozens who were celebrating the cleanup of a mud-covered home, a rescue official said.

Authorities were trying to get heavy-lifting equipment to affected villages on the main island of Java, said search and rescue chief Eko Prayitno, but blocked roads were hampering the efforts.

Days of torrential rain triggered the landslides as well as floods that inundated thousands of houses elsewhere in the country.

Sixty-one people were buried by a landslide in Karanganyar district just as they were having a dinner to celebrate the successful clean up of one mud-covered home, he said.

Seventeen others were feared dead in nearby Wonogiri district, after it was hit with 12 hours of nonstop rain. Watch how people are searching for survivors

The landslides occurred on the third anniversary of the Asian tsunami, which killed 230,000 people in a dozen nations.

Two-thirds of those deaths occurred on neighboring Sumatra island, more than 1,400 miles away. A tsunami warning drill on Java was unaffected by Wednesday’s disasters.

Seasonal rains and high tides in recent days have caused widespread flooding across Indonesia — the world’s fourth most-populous nation — where millions of people live in mountainous regions and near fertile flood plains close to rivers.

Floods were reported in numerous locations elsewhere on Java, as well as on Sumatra and Sulawesi islands. Thousands of homes were affected, witnesses and media reports said. E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

found here.

FARC captives may be free in hours

(CNN) — – President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela said Wednesday that three hostages held by Colombian rebels could be freed with hours.

Chavez said his forces had airplanes and helicopters ready to retrieve the hostages at a moment’s notice.

His government delivered a letter to Colombian leaders detailing the proposal, he said. Soon after, CNN confirmed the Colombia government had agreed to the deal.

The hostages have been held for several years by the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC for its Spanish acronym.

On Wednesday, Chavez stood before a map showing Venezuela and Colombia and pointed out several airports on the Venezuelan side of the frontier where the freed hostages could arrive.

He said he had considered options for a clandestine operation, but decided that would be too risky.

Hostages who could be freed include Clara Rojas, who was kidnapped in 2002 while she managed the campaign of Sen. Ingrid Betancourt, a candidate for the Colombian presidency, Chavez said. They also include Rojas’ son, Emmanuel, who was born in captivity, and Consuelo Gonzalez, a former Colombian congressman, he said.

Betancourt could be freed with other hostages later, Chavez said.

CNN’s Karl Penhaul in Bogota said Chavez spoke of the hostages being home by tomorrow, but Penhaul added there could be a number of sticking points in the coming hours.

Chavez said Wednesday that he had consulted with the leaders of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba and Ecuador about the hostages. The leaders of those countries, like Chavez, range in political philosophy from left to center-left, while Colombia’s president, Alvaro Uribe, leads a rightist political party.

The FARC has been engaged in a long-running war in Colombia that has involved right-wing paramilitaries, left-wing rebels, government forces and drug traffickers.
found here.