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Andy Murray is back in action on day six at the Australian Open, with Vera Zvonareva, Rafael Nadal and Kim Clijsters also playing.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has turned the firm into a hot investment property Facebook has said it has raised $1.5bn (£900m) from investors, valuing the world’s most popular social networking site at about $50bn.
About $1bn of the total came from overseas clients of Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street investment bank handling the share sale.
The remaining $500m came from Goldman itself, and Russia’s Digital Sky Technologies.
Facebook said it could have raised more money from the oversubscribed offer.
“Our business continues to perform well and we are pleased to be able to bolster our cash position with this new financing,” said David Ebersman, Facebook’s chief financial officer.
“With this investment completed, we now have greater financial flexibility to explore whatever opportunities lie ahead.”
The company said that it had “no immediate plans” for the for the proceeds from the fundraising, but would “continue investing to build and expand its operations”.
It added that it would begin filing public financial reports on 30 April next year.
The New York Times reported the Goldman and Digital Sky Technologies investment earlier this month.
At $50bn, Facebook would be worth more than eBay and Time Warner.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Russell Howard’s big gigs, awkward moments and bad habits
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Leinster secure a home quarter-final in the Heineken Cup after a 36-11 bonus-point victory over Racing Metro 92 in Paris.
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Protests have continued against leaders of Mr Ben Ali’s party Tunisia’s prime minister has promised to leave politics after elections being planned in the wake of President Zine al-Abedine Ben Ali’s fall last week.
In a TV interview, long-serving PM Mohamed Ghannouchi said he would quit “in the shortest possible timeframe”.
His transition government has promised to hold polls within six months, but it has so far not set a date.
Mr Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia on 14 January. Protesters say all figures linked to his regime should quit.
Mr Ghannouchi was a key ally of the ousted president, and has been struggling to restore calm under the new national unity government.
In his TV interview late on Friday, he said he would retire from public life after the elections, and promised that all “anti-democratic laws” would be repealed by the transition cabinet.
He added that under Mr Ben Ali, he had been “afraid, like all Tunisians”.
At least 78 people have been killed since a wave of protests began last December.
Three days of mourning began on Friday.
Mr Ghannouchi has left Mr Ben Ali’s RCD party and said his interim government needs “clean hands” – but he has also said the transition to democracy needs experienced politicians.
Meanwhile the country’s main trade union, the General Tunisian Workers’ Union (UGTT), has called for a new administration with no links with the ousted regime.
The UGTT’s deputy head, Abid Briki, told the AFP news agency that such a “national salvation government” was “in accordance with the demands of the street and political parties”.
The government has faced continuing protests against figures from the previous regime remaining in positions of power.
Last week, four opposition ministers quit over the issue, just one day after the cabinet was formed.
The interim cabinet has promised to release all political prisoners and said previously banned political groups will now be legal.
Mr Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia following a wave of demonstrations attributed to anger over unemployment and resentment about a lack of political freedom.
The protests began after a man set himself on fire in central Tunisia on 17 December.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Mrs Giffords is being transported to a rehabilitation clinic in Houston in the state of Texas The US congresswoman shot in the head in an attack at a constituency meeting in which six people died is being moved to a rehabilitation centre in Texas.
Gabrielle Giffords is being transported from a hospital in the Arizona city of Tucson to Memorial Hermann Rehabilitation Hospital in Houston.
Her husband, a Nasa astronaut, says he hopes she will make a full recovery.
Jared Loughner, 22, has been jailed pending trial for the attack in Tucson, in which six were killed and 13 hurt.
Ms Giffords was being transported in an ambulance led by a police escort from the University Medical Center to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.
The congresswoman is expected to fly to William Hobby Airport in Houston later on Friday, where she will be transported to the rehab facility.
“GG [Gabrielle Giffords] going to next phase of her recover today. Very grateful to the docs and nurses at UMC, Tucson PD, Sheriffs Dept….Back in Tucson ASAP!” her husband, Mark Kelly, wrote on micro-blogging website Twitter early on Friday.
Doctors in Arizona, where the congresswoman has undergone a series of operations, say her condition has stabilised to the point where Ms Giffords can move into the rehabilitation phase of recovery.
But despite her steady progress, doctors say Ms Giffords still has a long road to recovery and are not sure what, if any, disability she will have.
On Thursday, hospital workers in Tucson brought Ms Giffords to an outside deck where she was given the opportunity to breath fresh air and feel the sun, trauma surgeon Peter Rhee said.
Ms Giffords’ husband accompanied her to a deck at a hospital in Tucson “I saw the biggest smile she could gather,” Mr Rhee said, adding that those at the hospital are “very happy to have her enjoying the sunshine of Arizona.”
A University Medical Center spokeswoman said Ms Giffords had also been able to scroll through an iPad, and had picked out colours and moved her lips.
Hospital staff are also unsure of how well the congresswoman can see.
Earlier this week, Ms Giffords had reportedly stood, aided by medical staff.
Mr Kelly said on Thursday he believed she was attempting to speak and could recognize those around her, calling his wife “a fighter like nobody else that I know”.
“I can just look in her eyes and tell,” Mr Kelly said, adding that he is hoping she will make a full recovery.
Ms Giffords’ mother has said the Democratic congresswoman has made remarkable progress since the early January attack at a constituency event outside a store in Tucson.
Mr Loughner was indicted earlier this week on three counts of attempting to kill federal officials, relating to Ms Giffords and two of her aides wounded in the assault.
The indictment does not include a charge in the death of John Roll, a federal judge. The Arizona US attorney described the initial indictment as the beginning of federal legal action against Mr Loughner.
State charges are also likely to follow.
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TV footage of an 18-year-old Dutch psychiatric patient who has been tethered to a wall every day for the last three years prompts debate.
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Clermont Auvergne enhance their chances of progressing to the last eight of the Heineken Cup with a 24-14 win over Saracens at Vicarage Road.
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The leader of a gang of burglars, who stole more than �15,000 worth of musical instruments from a band in Carmarthenshire, has been jailed for six months.
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The Army removed the device A bomb has been made safe in the Malone Road area of south Belfast.
A police spokeswoman said a suspect object discovered on Friday afternoon was examined by the Army and declared a “viable device”.
It was discovered at the Queen’s University Officers Training Corps and has since been removed. No details about the device have been released.
The Malone Road, which was closed on both sides of Cadogan Park, has been reopened.
SDLP assembly member Conall McDevitt hit out at those responsible.
“The actions of those responsible are reprehensible and have caused great stress and disruption to people in south Belfast.
“Two of Belfast’s busiest routes have been brought to a virtual standstill, preventing parents collecting children from school and hindering business in our community.
Sinn Fein’s Alex Maskey said: “The disruption caused by this device serves no purpose other that to disrupt the lives of the local population and shows a total disregard for the community.
“Those responsible have nothing to offer other than causing disruption and creating the potential for someone to lose their lives.”
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Four workers are feared to have died in an industrial accident in Great Yarmouth in Norfolk.
Emergency services were called to Claxton Engineering in the North River Road area at about 1420 GMT following reports of an accident.
Police, fire and ambulance services were at the scene and the Health and Safety Executive has been informed.
Police confirmed there had been fatalities in the accident, but would not be drawn on the number.
The BBC understands four people suffered fatal injuries when a steel structure fell or tilted onto them.
Claxton is an offshore engineering company.
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An undercover police officer has been placed on restricted duties.
Det Con Jim Boyling, who worked in specialist operations at the Metropolitan Police, was investigated by the Directorate of Professional Standards.
It followed allegations about his conduct reported in a national newspaper.
A Met spokesman said it would be thoroughly investigated, but the police were not able to comment further.
The move comes after Policing Minister Nick Herbert told MPs something went “very wrong” in the case of Mark Kennedy, another undercover police officer.
He caused the trial of six men accused of conspiring to shut down Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in Nottinghamshire to collapse after he said he would testify for the defence.
Mr Kennedy spent a reported seven years posing as activist Mark “Flash” Stone.
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The Cuban postal company apologised to customers for the inconvenience Cuba has suspended all postal deliveries to the United States until further notice.
The suspension follows the introduction of stricter security measures by the US last year after the attempted mailing of explosives from Yemen.
The Cuban postal service says large amounts of mail were refused entry and returned in the following months.
Correspondents say the cost of so many returns may have led to the decision to stop the service.
Postal service between the US and Cuba had been suspended for 42 years after Cuba’s communist revolution, and only resumed in 2009 via third countries.
President Barack Obama’s decision to renew the service was widely seen as a move towards repairing relations between the two countries.
Its suspension is likely to be interpreted as a setback to the president’s efforts at easing tension and improving people-to-people ties between Cuba and the US.
The US tightened its security on air cargo after bombs hidden in cartridges were intercepted on route from Yemen to the US in cargo planes.
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White House aides praised GE as a company creating US manufacturing jobs President Barack Obama has vowed to put the economy “into overdrive” by 2012, as he announced the head of a new economic advisory panel.
At a General Electric (GE) plant in New York, Mr Obama said he had named the company’s head, Jeffery Immelt, to lead a council on jobs and competitiveness.
Mr Obama also called on China to open to “two-way trade” with US companies.
His remarks came amid what commentators describe as a White House effort to court the US business community.
“Our job is to do everything we can to ensure that businesses can take root, and folks can find good jobs,” Mr Obama told General Electric workers.
Despite pushing through a $787bn (£492bn) economic stimulus package and other measures, Mr Obama has been criticised for his handling of the US economy, which has seen sluggish job growth in the two years since he took office during the worst economic downturn in decades.
Mr Obama’s success or failure in his 2012 re-election bid will depend in part on the performance of the economy and on whether voters see steady job creation, analysts say.
“We’re going to build stuff, and invent stuff”
President Barack Obama
An Associated Press-GfK poll released on Friday suggested just 35% of Americans believe the economy has improved during Mr Obama’s presidency.
In one of several moves aimed at winning back corporate support, Mr Obama this week aimed at reducing the regulatory burden on US businesses.
Mr Obama on Friday emphasised the need to build the US export economy, particularly in terms of trade with China, with whom the US has a roughly $262.3 billion (£164 billion) trade deficit.
Shifting the US-China trade relationship toward a more equitable balance was a major issue in White House talks this week between Mr Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao.
“We’re going to build stuff, and invent stuff,” Mr Obama said on Friday. Regarding China, he said: “That’s where the customers are. It’s that simple.”
Chinese President Hu Jintao was spending the final day of his US state visit in Chicago, where business executives were set to sign 60 deals to highlight relations between the countries.
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Police struggled to hold back thousands of protesters
Three people have been killed in the Albanian capital Tirana during clashes between police and thousands of opposition supporters.
An estimated 20,000 people rallied outside government buildings calling on the conservative government to resign.
The protests follow the resignation of deputy prime minister Ilir Meta who is at the centre of a fraud scandal.
The socialist opposition accuses the government of corruption, abuse of power and rigging the last election.
Albania has been in political deadlock since the opposition rejected the result of the 2009 elections.
“Three people are dead, 17 policemen and soldiers were injured, including three seriously, along with 22 civilians,” hospital surgeon Sami Koceku told AFP news agency.
He said the victims were already dead when they arrived at the hospital.
Witnesses said a section of the crowd threw rocks at the police who responded with tear gas and water cannons.
“In recent days the rhetoric and the language of selected political leaders have assumed a tone that suggests an endorsement of disruptive and harmful acts and inappropriate conduct”
US embassy, Tirana
Some protesters also threw stones from the top of a pyramid-shaped building near the office of Prime Minister Sali Berisha and set light to a police car and other vehicles.
Following three hours of clashes, protesters dispersed after appeals for calm from President Bamir Topi and Socialist Party leader Edi Rama.
Police in riot gear then took control of the main streets and television footage showed officers fanning out through the main boulevard, chasing stray protesters and beating some with truncheons.
There were no immediate reports of arrests.
Before the protests, the US embassy in Tirana also called for the protest to be peaceful and appealed to politicians to tone down their rhetoric.
“In recent days the rhetoric and the language of selected political leaders have assumed a tone that suggests an endorsement of disruptive and harmful acts and inappropriate conduct,” it said in a statement.
British MP Mark Pritchard, who chairs the UK parliamentary group on Albania, also called for restraint.
“It would be very sad indeed, with Albania having come so far so quickly to build up its democracy and democratic institutions and having worked so hard towards possible future EU membership, if violence and political disunity were to put this at risk,” he told the BBC.
“I hope that all political parties will put their differences aside for the sake of the Albanian nation and people and to safeguard Albania’s international reputation.”
The opposition wants fresh parliamentary elections after rejecting the result of the June 2009 vote which Mr Berisha’s Democratic Party won by a small margin.
Political tensions rose after Ilir Meta – Mr Berisha’s key ally – resigned last week after being accused of corruption over a power plant tender.
Albania – one of Europe’s poorest countries – will hold local elections on 8 May but the next general election is not due until 2013.
Since the fall of communism in 1991, Albania has never held an election that has met all international standards.
Its hopes of joining the EU have been thwarted as it struggles to prove it has made the transition to a fully-functioning democracy.
Brussels rejected Albania’s application for candidate status late last year, urging it to meet an agenda of 12 points, in particular fighting corruption.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
