Shares of Alcatel-Lucent rose 2.6 percent after a U.S. federal jury ruled that Microsoft Corp. must pay the French company $1.52 billion for using digital music technology without permission.

The shares rose 26 cents to close at 10.09 euros in Paris, giving Alcatel-Lucent, the world's largest maker of telecommunications equipment, a market value of 23.3 billion euros ($30.7 billion).

Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, infringed two patents of Paris-based Alcatel-Lucent with its Windows Media Player, including the version in the new Vista operating system, a San Diego jury said Thursday. Microsoft said it will appeal the verdict.

"The jury's decision, if confirmed, would open the way for Alcatel-Lucent to file a large number of lawsuits against other companies using these patents illegally," analysts Frank Maccary and Eric Beaudet at Ixis Securities wrote in a note.

One of the disputed patents relates to compression of digital audio signals, while the other describes how to encode and play digital music. The jury upheld the validity of the patents and found that Alcatel-Lucent is entitled to more than $759 million for each of the two infringed patents.

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft said it licenses technology from a German researcher, Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS. Fraunhofer helped develop MP3 audio-compression technology with Bell Labs, once part of Lucent Technologies Inc., which Alcatel SA acquired last year.

The decision allows Alcatel-Lucent to seek an order barring Microsoft from using the patented technology. The victory may clear the way for legal actions against hundreds of companies that rely on MP3, the standard for playing music and sound files on mobile phones and digital-music players.

A federal jury in California awarded Alcatel-Lucent $1.52 billion dollars in damages Thursday for violations of two of Alcatel-Lucent's digital music patents committed by Microsoft. The patents govern technology that converts audio input into MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, more commonly known as MP3, which Microsoft has incorporated into several variants of its Windows Media Player. Microsoft has said that it properly licenses the MP3 technology from Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, a German company which Microsoft describes as the "industry recognized licensor."

Microsoft plans to appeal the jury's decision, which could have far-reaching implications in the digital media industry, as large numbers of companies in the industry, including Apple, Nokia, and Sony, license its MP3 technology from Fraunhofer.

Related claims against Gateway and Dell are still pending. Lucent Technologies filed 15 patent claims in 2003 alleging that the PC makers violated patents governing technology developed by its research and development organization, Bell Laboratories. Microsoft joined in the litigation as an intervenor and counter-claimant, due to its wide circulation of Windows Media Player through its Windows operating system. Lucent Technologies was acquired by Alcatel in December of 2006.

Raymond George Bohning, 59, of Hollywood, Fla., entered a guilty plea in U.S. District Court in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., for preying on children, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta for the Southern District of Florida, and FBI Special Agent in Charge, Jonathan I. Solomon, announced today.

At a hearing held today before Senior District Judge Jose A. Gonzales, Bohning pleaded guilty to the enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity, production of images of a child engaging in sexually explicit conduct, distribution of child pornography to a minor to persuade her to engage in sexual conduct, and possession of child pornography.

In November 2003, Bohning traveled from Florida to Birmingham, England, in order to sexually abuse 13 and 15-year-old girls. The father of the 13-year-old girl intercepted a telephone call between his daughter and Bohning upon Bohning’s arrival in the United Kingdom in which he discussed his planned sexual activity with her. The young girl’s father contacted U.K. law enforcement who notified the FBI in Miami. Bohning was arrested in the U.K. and charged with various offenses including possessing and distributing lewd images of minors. A search of his person and hotel room revealed he was in possession of numerous items including: a laptop computer, Viagra pills, Vaseline petroleum jelly, a teenage pornography magazine, and Polaroid images of a teenager engaging in sexually explicit conduct. Bohning pleaded guilty in the U.K. to possessing and distributing indecent images and publishing an indecent article and was sentenced to 30 months in prison. He was subsequently extradited to the United States for prosecution.

An investigation conducted by the FBI revealed that Bohning had an extensive collection of child pornography images depicting minors being sexually abused, including babies and toddlers. The defendant convinced a 15-year-old girl to engage in sexually explicit conduct in order to produce images which he saved; distributed images to a minor in an effort to persuade her to engage in sexually activity with him; and created a list of 374 individuals’ Internet screen or user names, mostly minors whom he catalogued by physical attributes, state or country of residence, and the nature of their sexual experiences.

Bohning faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison and a maximum of 30 years for production of child pornography. The defendant faces a mandatory minimum of five years in prison and a maximum of 30 years for enticing a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity. For distributing child pornography to a minor to induce her to engage in sexual activity, Bohning faces up to 20 years in prison. He also faces up to 10 years in prison for possessing in excess of 600 images of child pornography. Bohning is subject to a fine for each count of up to $250,000 and faces a possible lifetime period of supervised release. A sentencing hearing is currently scheduled for May 11, 2007.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robin Waugh for the Southern District of Florida, and Deputy Chief Sherri A. Stephan and trial attorney Bonnie Kane, both of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the Criminal Division. This case was investigated by FBI Special Agent Catherine Koontz in Miami, and the West Midlands Police Department in the United Kingdom. The analysis of the computer forensic evidence was accomplished by the High Technology Investigative Unit of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section.

This case is being brought as part of Project Safe Childhood. In February 2006, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales created Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys Offices, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as identify and rescue victims.

"Product testing by several states has now confirmed that Peter Pan peanut butter and certain Great Value brand peanut butter are the sources of the foodborne illness outbreak of Salmonella Tennessee that began in August 2006," the FDA said in a statement released late on Friday.

"To date 329 individuals have become ill from consuming the contaminated peanut butter, and 51 of those persons were hospitalized."

The FDA said the outbreak was still going on. "Potentially contaminated products include 3/4 ounce and 1.1 ounce single serving packs of Peter Pan brand peanut butter," the FDA said.

Judge William R. Wilson Jr. of the US District Court of Eastern Arkansas ruled Friday that the Little Rock School District was "substantially complying" with its Revised Desegregation and Education Plan ("Revised Plan") and released the school district from court supervision. The Little Rock School District voluntarily entered into the Revised Plan in 1998 "as a way of settling...over forty years of more or less continuous desegregation litigation." The Revised Plan required the school district to "substantially comply with hundreds of desegregation obligations in order to achieve unitary status."

In September 13, 2003, Wilson issued a memorandum opinion finding that Little Rock had substantially complied with all of its obligations in the Revised Plan with the exception of one that requires the school district to annually assess and improve the effectiveness of academic programs in improving African-American achievement. The school district unsuccessfully applied for unitary status in March 12, 2004. The Little Rock School District was the location of infamous 1957 confrontation between Arkansas governor Orval Faubus and the federal government following the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, which outlawed racial segregation in public education.

The United States, stretched by engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan, had hoped to transfer command as early as 2009, but ultimately agreed to South Korea's insistence that responsibilities be shifted at a slower pace.

Survivors and relatives of victims of the Srebrinica massacre are on their way to The Hague for a ruling on a demand to hold Serbia accountable for mass killings during the Bosnian War. The case, brought by Bosnia, has been described as one of the most significant in the International Court's history. "We've been waiting a long time, and now we want to go there and witness justice for ourselves," said one woman boarding a bus in Sarajevo for The Hague. "We have been deceived many times before and now we want justice, finally," another said.

The UN Court in The Hague opened the case last year, 13 years after Bosnia first sued what remained of the Yugoslav state from which it broke away in 1992. At least 100,000 died in the ensuing conflict. Bosnia says modern-day Serbia should pay billions of euros in compensation for the genocide and other war crimes committed against Bosnian Muslims during the fighting.

The most notorious episode came at Srebrinica when around 8,000 Bosnian men were massacred. Serbia's lawyers have argued the case between two multi-ethnic states does not reflect a war fought along ethnic lines. The ruling is expected on Monday.