Shorts (right)
Drone strikes a seminary outside Pakistan’s tribal region
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Missiles believed to have been fired by a U.S. drone struck an Islamic seminary in northern Pakistan on Thursday, in a rare strike outside the country’s volatile tribal regions.
The attack, in the Hangu District of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, killed six people and wounded five, including several members of the Haqqani militant network, according to a senior Pakistani security official. The attack came as Pakistani officials and politicians from across the political spectrum have intensified criticism of the U.S. drone attacks, particularly after a strike on Nov. 1 killed Hakimullah Mehsud, leader of the Pakistani Taliban, and disrupted the government’s plan to open peace negotiations with the militants.
The drone fired missiles into the seminary, near the border with Afghanistan, around 4:30 a.m. Thursday, Iftikhar Ahmad, a local police officer, said in a telephone interview. Local officials said drones had been flying over the area since Monday.
“The bodies have been mutilated and burned beyond recognition,” he said. “We are investigating the matter.”
—Ismail Khan, The New York Times
Working around Keystone XL, Suncor steps up oil production
Suncor Energy, Canada’s top petroleum producer, announced Thursday that it would expand its oil production in 2014 by 10 percent in another sign that the Obama administration’s delay in approving the Keystone XL pipeline extension is not holding back growth in the western Canadian oil sands fields.
“We’re set for a strong year of continued production,” Suncor’s chief executive, Steven W. Williams, said. The company announced a capital spending program of $7.45 billion for 2014, $477 million more than it had forecast earlier this year.
—Clifford Krauss, The New York Times
Jury adds $290 million to what Samsung owes Apple
SAN JOSE, Calif. — A jury on Thursday said that Samsung Electronics would have to pay Apple $290 million more in damages for violating patents, putting an end to one chapter in the long-running patent struggle between the two tech companies.
The six-woman, two-man jury calculated the damages based on 13 products that infringed Apple’s patents. They determined that two smartphones incurred the heftiest damages: Samsung’s Infuse 4G, at about $100 million, and the Droid Charge, at $60 million.
While the price tag will not significantly affect either company’s pocketbooks, the ruling did give Apple another victory in the companies’ continuing legal fight.
—Brian X. Chen, The New York Times