U.S. Sues BP and Other Companies Over Gulf Spill

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Wednesday suedBP and eight other companies in the Gulf oil spill disaster in an effort to recover billions of dollars from the largest offshore spill in U.S. history.

The Obama administration's lawsuit asks that the companies be held liable without limitation under the Oil Pollution Act for all removal costs and damages caused by the oil spill, including damages to natural resources. The lawsuit also seeks civil penalties under the Clean Water Act.

"We intend to prove these violations caused or contributed to the massive oil spill," Attorney General Eric Holder told a news conference.

The amount of damages and the extent of injuries sustained by the United States as a result of the Deepwater Horizon Spill are not yet fully known, the lawsuit states.

An explosion that killed 11 workers at BP's Macondo well last April led to oil spewing from the company's undersea well — more than 200 million gallons in all by the government's estimate. BP disputes the figure.

The department filed the suit in federal court in New Orleans.

The other defendants in the case are Anadarko Exploration & Production LP andAnadarko Petroleum Corp.; MOEX Offshore 2007 LLC; Triton Asset Leasing GMBH;Transocean Holdings LLC and Transocean Offshore Deepwater Drilling Inc. and Transocean Deepwater Inc.; and BP's insurer, QBE Underwriting Ltd./Lloyd's Syndicate 1036.

Anadarko and MOEX are minority owners of the well that blew out. Transocean owned the rig that BP was leasing.

U.S. Sues BP and Other Companies Over Gulf Spill - NYTimes.com

Color E-Readers Open Way for Picture Books

Millions of consumers have embraced black-and-white e-readers like the Kindle for reading simple novels or nonfiction — but books with color illustrations have generally remained better read in print.

Some of the most popular children’s picture books of all time will be available, including some of the “Olivia” picture books, published by Simon & Schuster. Other titles are “Ad Hoc at Home,” a lavish cookbook by the chefThomas Keller; “Beginnings,” by the photographer Anne Geddes and “In the National Parks,” a photograph collection by Ansel AdamsNow publishers are making headway in converting their enormous libraries of illustrated titles to e-books, hoping to capitalize on the growing popularity of the Apple iPad and the Nook Color and their ability to showcase books with color photographs and illustrations.

Apple said Tuesday that it was set to make a major push into illustrated books on Wednesday, introducing more than 100 titles to its iBookstore, an assortment of children’s books, photography books and cookbooks.

.Color E-Readers Open Way for Picture Books - NYTimes.com

Rival Accepts Deal, Clearing Path for Maliki to Rule in Iraq

BAGHDAD — Ayad Allawi, who years ago fought off ax-wielding assassins dispatched to London by Saddam Hussein’s secret police, is not a man to concede defeat easily. And he still would not — exactly — on Wednesday.Mr. Allawi did so grudgingly and with conditions, warning that an agreement brokered by the United States to form a broad power-sharing coalition government under Mr. Maliki’s leadership could still unravel.Defeat has come nevertheless, and so has acceptance, perhaps inevitably.

More than nine months after Iraq’s election propelled him to the brink of toppling his main political rival, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, and a month after he vowed he would not join Mr. Maliki’s new government, Mr. Allawi indicated on Wednesday that he would join it after all. That appeared to remove the last major obstacle to Mr. Maliki’s formation of a new government, something he must do by law before Dec. 25.

Rival Accepts Deal, Clearing Path for Maliki to Rule in Iraq - NYTimes.com