Danny Puff

NEW YORK (AP) Chick Corea took the unusual step of releasing four major recordings last year covering a wide gamut of music everything from solo piano improvisations to a concerto for jazz quintet and chamber orchestra.

Now, the 71-year-old jazz pianist and composer is in the unusual position of competing against himself in two categories at the Feb. 10 awards show in Los Angeles.

"People in the music business say don't make too many records because they'll compete against one another," Corea said in a phone interview. "Well, it's exactly what's happening, but I'm very happy about it because what I love to do is making a lot of music."

His album "Hot House," the latest chapter in his 40-year partnership with vibraphonist Gary Burton, has three nominations best jazz instrumental album, improvised jazz solo for the title track and instrumental composition for "Mozart Goes Dancing."

"Further Explorations," on which he pays tribute to major influence Bill Evans and is joined by Evans trio alumni drummer Paul Motian and bassist Eddie Gomez, was nominated for best jazz instrumental album and improvised jazz solo for "Alice in Wonderland."

The five Grammy nominations bring Corea's career total to 62, tying him for fourth place with composer John Williams for most nominations. He trails only Quincy Jones (79), Georg Solti (74) and Henry Mancini (71). Corea has won 18 Grammys, including two last year for "Forever," an electric-acoustic album on which the pianist, bassist Stanley Clarke and drummer Lenny White explored the roots of their groundbreaking 1970s jazz-rock fusion band Return to Forever.

Corea appreciated the Grammy recognition for "Further Explorations," one of the last recordings by Motian, who died two months before the album's release in January 2012.

The two-CD set was recorded over two weeks at the Blue Note jazz club nearly 50 years after the release of Evans' landmark "Explorations" LP. Those early Evans recordings with Motian and bassist Scott LaFaro expanded the vocabulary for modern piano-trio jazz, Corea says, by introducing "a conversational approach to playing" in which the drums and bass interacted with the piano as equals.

The album includes originals by each trio member, Evans' own compositions and standards that Evans made his own, such as "Alice in Wonderland" from the Disney film.

"None of us wanted to just go in and try to reproduce Bill Evans trio music," Corea said. "That's why the concept of 'Further Explorations' ... it was the idea of let's explore it further."

While "Further Explorations" was a onetime project, "Hot House" continues a duo collaboration with Burton dating back to 1972 that has included four Grammy-winning albums on which they mostly played Corea's compositions.

To mark their 40th anniversary, the pair decided to focus on a standards repertoire for the first time with Corea writing new arrangements for music such as Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Chega de Saudade," Thelonious Monk's "Light Blue" and Dave Brubeck's "Strange Meadow Lark," which they played early in their careers.

The Grammy-nominated title track is a composition by bebop pianist Tadd Dameron that was popularized by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.

"When I came to New York after high school in 1959 and started to meet musicians, 'Hot House' was like a standard jam session tune," Corea said. "It looked like a good way to sum up the whole album ... which was our roots."

The only original tune on "Hot House" is "Mozart Goes Dancing," on which Corea combined a harmonic progression familiar to Mozart with Latin rhythms. He enlisted the Harlem String Quartet to join the duo, which he says is a harbinger for future recordings.

Corea also released "The Continents," a six-movement concerto for jazz quintet and chamber orchestra, last year and "The Mothership Returns," a double-CD with a bonus DVD, recorded during a 2011 tour by the latest incarnation of Return To Forever.

Immediately after the Grammys, the pianist plans to stay in L.A. to mix his next album with his new acoustic-electric band, Chick Corea & The Vigil, which includes saxophonist Tim Garland as well as young musicians Hadrien Feraud on bass, guitarist Charles Altura and drummer Marcus Gilmore, the grandson of renowned drummer Roy Haynes, who played on Corea's breakthrough 1968 trio album "Now He Sings, Now He Sobs."

"The idea of The Vigil is to defy the norm of boxing you into playing music in a certain style," Corea said. "It's about how to keep a free mind as a musician."

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Online:

http://grammy.com

http://chickcorea.com

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NEW YORK (AP) -- Are you ashamed to have a BlackBerry? It's not exactly a status symbol any more, at least not in the U.S., after it got left in the dust by the iPhone. Now, there's a new BlackBerry that wants to get back into the cool club: the Z10.

It's the first phone to run the new BlackBerry 10 operating system, and it is, at first blush, a very good stab at regaining at least some of the cachet of the BlackBerry.

The problem is that no one has ever succeeded in turning around a failing smartphone maker. Remember the Palm, anyone? It's simply a brutal industry. So even if the Z10 does everything it set out to do, it might not be enough to save Research In Motion Ltd., the home of the BlackBerry. The company is changing its name to BlackBerry, but that could just be the prelude to riding the brand into the sunset once and for all.

It doesn't exactly help that the Z10 looks like every other smartphone on the shelf. It's a flat black slab with a touch screen, nearly indistinguishable at 15 feet from the iPhone 5 or a bevy of Android smartphones. The screen measures 4.2 inches diagonally, a bit bigger than the iPhone but smaller than most Android phones. It will go on sale in the U.S. in March, probably for about $200 with a two-year service contract, in line with the iPhone and other rivals.

Turn it on, and the differences become more evident. Older BlackBerrys are great communications devices, but are poor at multimedia and at running third-party apps, something the iPhone excels at. The new BlackBerry 10 software is a serious attempt at marrying these two feature sets, and after a few hours of use, it looks like it succeeds.

BlackBerry 10 was delayed for about a year, and it seems as if the extra time was put to good use. The software is, for a first release, uncommonly slick and well thought out, completely unlike the PlayBook disaster of two years ago, when RIM released a tablet computer that couldn't do email.

The Z10 is easier to use than an Android phone. It is more difficult to use than the iPhone, but it is also more powerful, giving you faster access to your email, tweets, Facebook status updates and text messages.

These communications end up in the "Hub," a window that slides in from the left side of the screen. Whatever you're doing on the phone, you can get to the hub with a single swipe on the screen, and then go back. It's a great feature for the always-connected.

The software is good for on-the-go types as well, because it's designed for one-handed use. While texting, you'll have one hand free for holding your bag or pushing open doors.

It's also completely touch-oriented, which isn't what you'd expect from a BlackBerry. You don't use a hardware buttons to navigate the phone at all: They're just to turn the phone on or off, or adjust the volume. To get around, you swipe across the screen. Up, down, right and left swipes all do different things, but they're fairly easy to remember. Sadly, it's reminiscent of webOS, the last hurrah of smartphone pioneer Palm Inc. It was a great, swipe-based interface that never found an audience and was ultimately put to rest.

Very rarely does BlackBerry 10 display a "Back" button on the screen, which is a blessing. I find Android's always-present "Back" button a huge annoyance, since it's rarely clear where it will take me. Will it take me back one screen or kick me out of the application I'm in? Only one way to find out: pushing it.

BlackBerry diehards will lament the lack of a physical keyboard they'll have to wait for the Q10, a model in the more traditional BlackBerry form. That's due this spring. But before writing off the Z10, these loyalists should try its on-screen keyboard. It's really very good. It provides more vertical space between the keys, imitating the steel bands that separated the hardware keys on the BlackBerry Bold. It's very accurate and easy to use.

The Z10 will also have a replaceable battery, something lacking on the iPhone. Screen quality will be good, too, at 356 pixels per inch, compared with 326 for the iPhone 5 and 306 for Samsung's Galaxy S III. Unlike the iPhone, the Z10 will allow you to expand storage with a microSD card, and it sports a chip letting the phone act as a credit card at some payment terminals and share data wirelessly when tapped against some other phones. The Z10 is heavier than the iPhone, though at 4.78 ounces to the iPhone 5's 3.95 ounces.

So why does the Z10 and BlackBerry 10 face such an uphill battle?

Well, the library of third-party applications is the biggest reason. The iPhone and Android have a huge head start when it comes to getting developers to make applications that run on their phones. RIM says BlackBerry 10 will launch in the U.S. with about 100,000 apps. That sounds like a big number, and it includes important apps such as Skype and Facebook.

But it's inevitable that the iPhone will have apps you want but can't get on BlackBerry 10. There's no Instagram, no Netflix. It's also obvious that the number includes some apps that were written for the PlayBook tablet and don't work well on the smaller phone screen.

But the biggest obstacle to a RIM comeback is simply that the iPhone and Android have become the default for phone buyers, and few will see a reason to try something else. Microsoft, which has vastly more resources than RIM, has tried for two years to get people to buy Windows Phones, with very little to show for it.

BlackBerry 10 is nice, but I can't point to anything about it that would make me say: "Forget those other phones: you have to buy this one."

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Peter Svensson can be reached at http://twitter.com/petersvensson

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About the BlackBerry Z10:

It's the first of the phones to use the BlackBerry 10 operating system, an attempt to bring the once-pioneering BlackBerry in line with the iPhone and Android devices. It's not coming in the U.S. until March. All major carriers will have it, likely for about $200 with a two-year service contract.

The Z10 will have only a touch-screen keyboard. BlackBerry fans wanting a physical keyboard will have to wait at least a month for the BlackBerry Q10.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) Kerry Washington was a triple threat at the NAACP Image Awards.

The star of ABC's "Scandal" picked up a trio of trophies at the 44th annual ceremony: outstanding actress in a drama series for "Scandal," supporting actress in a motion picture for "Django Unchained" and the President's Award, which is given in recognition of special achievement and exceptional public service.

"This award does not belong to me," said Washington, who plays a slave separated from her husband in "Django Unchained," as she picked up her first trophy of the evening for her role in the film directed by Quentin Tarantino. "It belongs to our ancestors. We shot this film on a slave plantation, and they were with us along every step of the way."

Washington, who plays crisis management consultant Olivia Pope on "Scandal," serves on President Barack Obama's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.

Don Cheadle was awarded the outstanding actor in a comedy series trophy for his role as a slick management consultant in Showtime's "House of Lies."

"This doesn't belong just to me, but I am taking it home tonight," joked Cheadle.

A few winners weren't present at the Shrine Auditorium to pick up their trophies, including Denzel Washington for outstanding actor in a motion picture for "Flight," Viola Davis for outstanding actress in a motion picture for "Won't Back Down" and Omar Epps for supporting actor in a drama series for Fox's "House."

"Red Tails," the drama about the Tuskegee Airmen, was honored as outstanding motion picture.

"Look! I beat Quentin Tarantino," beamed "Red Tails" executive producer George Lucas as he accepted the award.

LL Cool J, who was honored as outstanding actor in a drama series for CBS' "NCIS: Los Angeles," dedicated his trophy to fellow nominee Michael Clarke Duncan, "The Green Mile" and "The Finder" actor who died last year.

"I wish his family well," said LL. "Let's give it up for him."

Gladys Knight sang during the in memoriam segment, but the beginning of her performance wasn't heard on the live NBC broadcast because of a technical glitch.

Sidney Poitier presented Harry Belafonte with the Spingarn Award, which honors outstanding achievement by an African American. His honor was followed by a serenade from Wyclef Jean and Common.

Other winners at the ceremony hosted by talk show host Steve Harvey included Loretta Devine as supporting actress in a drama series for "Grey's Anatomy," Cassi Davis as outstanding actress in a comedy series and Lance Gross as outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series for TBS' "Tyler Perry's House of Payne."

The Image Awards are presented annually by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the group's members select the winners.

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Online:

http://www.naacpimageawards.net

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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/derrikjlang

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LOS ANGELES (AP) When doctors get called on the carpet by other doctors, it's productive but not always pretty, as neurosurgeon Sanjay Gupta describes it.

Closed-door meetings in which physicians candidly dissect cases that went awry can verge on "dignified versions of street fights," said CNN's globe-trotting correspondent.

He drew on such sessions commonplace for hospitals, if little publicly known for his first novel, "Monday Mornings," and is a writer-producer on a new TNT series based on the 2012 book.

The drama, from veteran producer David E. Kelley ("Boston Legal," ''The Practice") and with a heavyweight cast that includes Ving Rhames, Alfred Molina and Bill Irwin, debuts Monday (10 p.m. EST). That's also the day the show's fictional Chelsea General Hospital holds its weekly reviews.

In the real world, such meetings to scrutinize complications and mistakes in patient care can lead to new guidelines, Gupta said.

"They can be simple, like never sedate a patient until they're strapped in on the table," he said, the outcome of an unrestrained patient having taken a tumble. "Some changes are big, some are small, but they are always important. We are always redefining medicine."

In the first episode of "Monday Mornings," brash but dedicated neurosurgeon Dr. Tyler Wilson (Jamie Bamber, "Battlestar Galactica") is grilled for failing to check a patient's medical history. Gupta said he learned his own "searing" lesson, about carefully reviewing lab results, without any harm to the patient.

Do the forums ever become a stage for office politics?

"People do jockey for position in these situations," Gupta replied. "If someone's at the lectern (under scrutiny), anyone can ask questions, not just the chairperson of the department. So the nature and tone of it can change pretty quickly."

The most disturbing inquiries involve an apparently reckless M.D. with "a disregard for the person on the operating table or in the hospital," he said. "You can imagine your own mother or loved in the position of the patient, and those are the most indelible ones of all."

The meetings make for gripping drama on "Monday Mornings." But is a show that focuses on medicine's failures as well as its triumphs potentially a hard sell for audiences?

"ER," TV's once-reigning hospital drama, aired a powerful first-season episode in which decisions by Dr. Mark Greene, the caring, steady lead character played by Anthony Edwards, cost a pregnant woman her life. The story line was a rarity on the show that routinely focused on medical heroics.

The key to making the TNT series work is the "likability" of its physicians, said Bill D'Elia, a producer on "Monday Mornings."

It's crucial to "understand their motivation, understand how good they are, how much they care. So it's not black-and-white" when a character blows it, D'Elia said.

As is the case with non-TV doctors, Gupta said.

A mistake is made and "you think that's a bad doctor. You may even think that's a bad human being, and in some cases you might be right," he said. "But a lot of times you're not, and I think showing the rest of the story, how it may continue to get discussed" is illuminating.

Besides writing for "Monday Mornings," Gupta, 43, makes sure it depicts surgery and the world of medicine accurately.

How Gupta fits the tasks into his already demanding schedule is a medical mystery. As D'Elia said, he never knows if he's talking to the doctor in Atlanta, where Gupta lives with his family and practices, or in another city, sometimes far-flung, as part of his award-winning work for CNN (which, like TNT, is part of Time Warner subsidiary Turner).

"When I talk to him I have this (mental) picture of him in front of a green screen so he can input wherever he is," D'Elia said. "He's as likely to be in Pakistan as New York."

Since joining CNN in 2001, Gupta has covered events including the quake and tsunami in Japan, Hurricane Katrina and the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster. In 2003, while embedded with a Navy medical unit, he reported from Iraq and Kuwait and acted as a doctor as well as a reporter, performing brain surgeries in a desert operating room.

That same year, he got a spot on People magazine's list of the "sexiest men alive."

He anchors the weekend medical affairs program, "Sanjay Gupta MD," is on the staff and faculty at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, and is an associate chief of neurosurgery at Grady Memorial Hospital.

In 2009, he was approached for the position of surgeon general in the new Obama administration, a post he says he declined because it would have halted his work as a neurosurgeon. He's said he's a supporter of the Affordable Care Act and wants to see it fully implemented to give more Americans coverage.

Gupta learned his work ethic from his parents, who moved from India in the 1960s to work at a Ford plant in Detroit, where he grew up, and is surprised when people ask how he does it all.

"There's a lot of people who work a lot harder than I do and aren't known," he said.

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Online:

http://www.tntdrama.com

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Lynn Elber can be reached at lelber(at)ap.org and on Twitter (at)lynnelber.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) Hollywood's strange awards season continues with another ceremony that could firm up a big Oscar win for Ben Affleck's "Argo."

The Directors Guild of America hands out prizes Saturday night in Los Angeles in what typically is a final blessing for the film that goes on to win best-picture and director at the Academy Awards.

Affleck can go only one-for-two at the Oscars, though. He's up for the film honor at the guild awards, and "Argo" is looking like the best-picture favorite at the Oscars on Feb. 24. But the director's branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences overlooked him and several other key filmmakers for an Oscar directing slot.

The guild and Oscar directing lineups usually match up closely, but they have little in common this season, with only Steven Spielberg for "Lincoln" and Ang Lee for "Life of Pi" nominated at both shows.

Along with them and Affleck, the guild nominated Kathryn Bigelow for "Zero Dark Thirty" and Tom Hooper for "Les Miserables." At the Oscars, Spielberg and Lee are joined in the directing category by Michael Haneke for "Amour," David O. Russell for "Silver Linings Playbook" and Benh Zeitlin for "Beasts of the Southern Wild."

With 12 Oscar nominations, Spielberg's Civil War saga initially looked like the Oscar favorite over such other potential favorites as "Argo," ''Les Miserables" and "Zero Dark Thirty," since films generally have little chance of winning best picture if they are not nominated for best director. Only three films have done it in 84 years, most recently 1989's best-picture champ "Driving Miss Daisy," which failed to earn a directing nomination for Bruce Beresford.

But Affleck's "Argo," in which he also stars as a CIA operative who hatches a bold plan to rescue six Americans during the hostage crisis in Iran, has been sweeping up all the major awards since the Oscar nominations. "Argo" won best drama and director at the Golden Globes and top film honors from the Screen Actors Guild and the Producers Guild of America.

Many of the same film professionals who vote in guild awards also cast ballots for the Oscars. If Affleck wins at the Directors Guild awards, it will be a strong sign that "Argo" has the inside track for the best-picture Oscar.

Saturday's honors aren't all about "Argo," though. Milos Forman ("One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," ''Amadeus") will receive the guild's lifetime-achievement award, and the director's union also will hand out prizes for television, documentary and commercials. Kelsey Grammer returns as host for the second-straight year.

Affleck may have a bit of newcomer's edge at the guild, where he's the only first-time nominee. Spielberg has won the guild prize a record three times, for "The Color Purple," ''Schindler's List" and "Saving Private Ryan." Lee has won twice, for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Brokeback Mountain," while Bigelow won three years ago for "The Hurt Locker" and Hooper won two years ago for "The King's Speech."

A win for Affleck would nick the guild's record as a strong forecast for the eventual directing recipient at the Oscars. Only six times in the 64-year history of the guild awards has the winner there failed to follow up with an Oscar. It would be No. 7 if Affleck wins Saturday, since he's not up for best director at the Oscars.

Peer loyalty might play in Affleck's favor at the Oscars. The acting branch in particular, the largest block of the academy's 5,900 members, might really throw its weight behind "Argo" because of Affleck's directing snub. Actors love it when one of their own moves into a successful directing career, and Affleck who's rarely earned raves for his dramatic chops also delivers one of his best performances in "Argo."

Affleck has had no traction in acting honors this season, and he's joked that no one considered it a snub when he wasn't nominated for best actor. So a best-picture vote for "Argo" might be viewed as making right his omission from the directing lineup and acknowledging what a double-threat talent he's become in front of and behind the camera.

A best-picture prize also would send Affleck home with an Oscar. The award would go to the producers of "Argo": George Clooney, Grant Heslov and Affleck.

But it's not as though Affleck has never gotten his due at Hollywood awards before. He and Matt Damon jump-started their careers with 1997's "Good Will Hunting," for which they shared a screenplay Oscar.

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Online:

http://www.dga.org

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WASHINGTON (AP) In the midst of talking black history with Grammy-winning singer Alicia Keys, Maya Angelou breaks out singing a hymn a cappella.

The acclaimed poet and author wants to show Keys, a New Yorker, what "lining out," call-and-response singing that is popular in black churches down South, sounds like.

That teaching moment is one of many during Angelou's third annual Black History Month program, "Telling Our Stories," airing on more than 175 public radio stations nationwide throughout February.

Angelou says she is obligated to share her knowledge and experience with younger people like Keys, in a way that is not "preaching" but gives context to the "human truth."

"We owe the truth, not just the facts," she said recently in a phone interview from her home in Winston-Salem, N.C. "I'm celebrating my 84th year on this planet. I've seen many things, I've learned many things. I've certainly been exposed to many things and I've learned something: I owe it to you, to tell you."

Angelou said she is sharing black history in "a way that you get it and don't even know you got it," with songs, poems, jokes and short stories woven throughout interviews with five guests, including Keys, media mogul Oprah Winfrey, singer and actress Jennifer Hudson, diplomat Kofi Annan and actress and playwright Regina Taylor.

Keys talks about growing up in New York's Hell's Kitchen and how the diverse city influenced her sound. The performer, who began studying European classical music at the age of 7, said her influences range from the greats like Ella Fitzgerald, John Coltrane and Nina Simone to chart-topping peers like rappers Nas and Jay-Z.

Winfrey chats with Angelou during the special about their close friendship spanning over two decades, starting the Oprah Winfrey Network and her return to acting in the Lee Daniel's film "The Butler."

"One of the wonderful things about Oprah: She teaches you to keep on stepping," Angelou said. "She had the most powerful and popular program for 25 years and she stepped down and took on a bigger task, starting OWN."

Angelou added, "She teaches the young people: Keep on going, continue and continue with some pizazz, some laughter and some style."

Angelou interviews Hudson, an Oscar and Grammy winner, about her journey from singing in her Chicago church choir to performing at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Norway last year; and Taylor, a Golden Globe-winning actress and playwright who was the first black woman to play Juliet in William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" on Broadway.

This year's special mostly focuses on women in media and entertainment, and heavily uses music to convey history.

"I think music is one of the hero/sheroes of the African-American existence," Angelou said, noting that black history has been preserved through music, via songs on slave ships to Negro hymns passed down in Baptist churches.

The single man spotlighted as a guest on the radio program is Annan, the former secretary-general of the United Nations and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He talks about climbing the ranks in diplomacy and his mission of public service.

"Mr. Kofi Annan has behaved too fabulously as secretary-general of the United Nations and he's had more than one stint at the job and he has earned a Nobel," she said. "Sometimes we don't know about any African except Nelson Mandela and oft times, we don't know any Afro-American man."

Angelou jokes that next year she will feature all men for the annual special, with rapper Common already in mind.

"Or mostly men, because there are men of such quality African-American men such riches, such dignity and humor," she said. "They just run through my mind now."

Another man who brings Angelou great pride is Richard Blanco, the youngest, the first Hispanic and the first gay person to recite a poem at a presidential inauguration last month at President Barack Obama's second swearing-in. Angelou was the first black woman to recite a poem at an inauguration, President Bill Clinton's in 1993.

"He showed great courage," she said of Blanco, "and it's courage (that) is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently. So I was very pleased with that."

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Online:

http://mayaangelouonpublicradio.com

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Four protesters were arrested entirely in the buff as they took to the steps of San Francisco City Hall in a brazen challenge of the city's ban on public nudity on Friday, the first day it went into effect.

One woman and three men one wearing just a mesh thong were taken into custody as about a dozen other protesters in various states of undress paraded around with painted slogans on their bodies, holding up signs with messages such as "The Human Body is Beautiful."

Police gave them a 15-minute warning to disperse or put pants on before officers arrested those who failed to cover themselves. The protesters said their arrest would advance the cause of "body freedom."

"No matter what, we're going to continue practicing body freedom," said Gypsy Taub, a mother of two who hosts a local cable program devoted to the nudist cause. "In a society that's repressed and crazy, that glorifies war and at the same time criminalizes the human body ... nudity is a political statement."

In December, the Board of Supervisors voted 7-4 in favor of the ordinance, which prohibits exposed genitals in most public places, including streets, sidewalks and public transit. A federal judge ruled Tuesday that nudity was not protected free speech and upheld San Francisco's ban on most displays of public nudity.

Protesters vowed to appeal the judge's decision.

Police spokesman Albie Esparza said the arrests were simply an attempt to enforce compliance with the law, which the city enacted after residents complained about people in various stages of undress.

"We're not here to arrest and cite people if we don't have to, but if we have to, we will enforce the law," he said. "We want to admonish as many people as possible and try to gain compliance."

Activists challenging the measure also had argued that the ordinance was unfair because it grants exceptions for nudity at permitted public events such as the city's gay pride parade. They complained that forcing people to cover up would undermine San Francisco's reputation as a city without inhibitions.

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VIENNA (Reuters) - Arnold Schwarzenegger credited his simple upbringing amid the lakes and hills of Austria for a recent conversion to fully fledged green activism, the latest stage in his varied career.

The former body-builder, star of the "Terminator" action films and governor of California grew up in Thal, a small village in the Austrian province of Styria, and emigrated to the United States at the age of 21.

"Growing up in my house, we knew about sustainability before it was hip. We called it 'necessity'," Schwarzenegger told an environmental conference he hosted in Vienna this week.

"We didn't have video games, televisions or iPhones. We had the rolling hills, the castles, the ruins, and the beautiful lakes," he said. "Even after I made it big and became governor of California, I held on to this love of nature."

The "governator" - who left office and split with his wife of 25 years, Maria Shriver in 2011, has recently returned to making action movies - expressed surprise at the turn his life had taken, after he had thought all his ambitions fulfilled.

"When I was a little boy in Austria, all I could think about was moving to America, to become the greatest bodybuilder champion in the world and make millions of dollars and be an action hero," said Schwarzenegger.

"My dream became reality. Who knew my greatest achievement would be in the real world fighting for a green energy future? Green energy wasn't even in my vocabulary."

(Reporting by Derek Brooks; Writing by Georgina Prodhan, editing by Paul Casciato)

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BRUSSELS (Reuters) - An Austrian member of the European Parliament is under investigation over suspect expenses claims totalling 1.3 million euros, including one item listed as "elephant".

In a request to the European Parliament to waive Hans-Peter Martin's immunity, the Vienna prosecutor's office said it suspected the independent MEP of embezzling public funds and making money "illicitly for himself or a third party by fraudulent means".

"It is suspected that, by using money for the reimbursement of election campaign costs for purposes other than those intended, Dr Hans-Peter Martin has committed crimes of misuse of funding ... and embezzlement," said the request, made last May and seen by Reuters.

Martin, 55, says the allegations are an invention by adversaries upset by his efforts to expose the parliament's waste of public funds.

"I see a direct link between the fact that I have made these things public and now false allegations being leaked to the press," Martin told Reuters last week.

Asked about some of the details and figures set out by the prosecutor, Martin said they were accurate but that no embezzlement was involved.

The prosecutor's request details a series of suspect or unexplained expenses that were claimed either in Austria or via the European Parliament.

Among them is a payment of 832,800 euros for "public relations work" that the prosecutor says was made to "businessmen who are friends of Dr Hans-Peter Martin, even though no (equivalent) services were provided".

Another concerns the employment of a parliamentary assistant at a cost of 67,343 euros. The prosecutor said it suspected the individual "never actually carried out work" for Martin in connection with his parliamentary activities.

One claim for 2,200 euros was identified in accounts as being for an "elephant".

Martin says he in fact meant to claim for books about Auschwitz from an Austrian publisher called "Ephelant". The publisher does offer such a book, priced at 22 euros. (http://www.ephelant-verlag.at/)

Parliament's legal affairs committee will meet this month to discuss Martin's immunity, a spokesman said. The assembly had already suspended Martin's immunity once at prosecutors' request, in September 2011.

Martin, a former journalist who has sat in the European Parliament since 1999, said he looked forward to clearing his name. "It if were up to me there would be no immunity in the first place," he said.

(Reporting By Claire Davenport; Editing by Luke Baker and Kevin Liffey)

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President George W. Bush holds his dog Barney after arriving in Waco, Texas, in this December 26, 2007 file photo. Former first dog Barney Bush, the black Scottish terrier who romped on the White House grounds in George W. Bush s time there, has died at age 12, the former president said in a statement. The playful pooch had been suffering from lymphoma.

Barney played a starring role in the presidential mansion, notably in BarneyCam holiday specials featuring footage from a camera that caught a dog s eye view of senior aides like Karl Rove. He was also a reliable fixture on the White House website.

Bush announced his dog's passing in a statement:

Laura and I are sad to announce that our Scottish Terrier, Barney, has passed away. The little fellow had been suffering from lymphoma and after twelve and a half years of life, his body could not fight off the illness.

Barney and I enjoyed the outdoors. He loved to accompany me when I fished for bass at the ranch. He was a fierce armadillo hunter. At Camp David, his favorite activity was chasing golf balls on the chipping green.

Barney Bush, as painted by former president George W. Bush

Barney guarded the South Lawn entrance of the White House as if he were a Secret Service agent. He wandered the halls of the West Wing looking for treats from his many friends. He starred in Barney Cam and gave the American people Christmas tours of the White House. Barney greeted Queens, Heads of State, and Prime Ministers. He was always polite and never jumped in their laps.

Barney was by my side during our eight years in the White House. He never discussed politics and was always a faithful friend. Laura and I will miss our pal.

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HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong introduced measures on Friday to tackle a shortage of baby milk formula as food-safety-conscious mainland Chinese people flock to the city to stock up on supplies ahead of a Lunar New Year holiday.

The Hong Kong government cut the luggage allowance on trains that connect the city to the mainland to 23 kg (50 lb) from 32 kg (70 lb) and limited the number of cans of milk powder a person can take back into the mainland to two per visit.

It said it would also set up a hot line from Friday evening allowing Hong Kong mothers to place orders for seven brands of infant formula and ensure that orders placed by this weekend are delivered by the new year holiday, which starts on February 10 and runs for a week in China, when most shops are closed.

A series of scandals involving food produced in China, including milk, has sapped the confidence of many mainland consumers, who have flocked to Hong Kong to shop, angering residents of the wealthy city who say the problem has led to shortages and pushed up prices.

"The scandals here definitely have had an effect," said Kevin Der Arslanian, a business analyst at China Market Research Group in Shanghai. "People don't trust necessarily that the product they buy is real or the quality is good."

High import taxes in China have also created a thriving grey market for traders who buy products tax-free in Hong Kong and take them on crowded trains across the border on trolleys, in suitcases or stuffed in their jackets, to resell for a profit.

Hong Kong was guaranteed a degree of autonomy when it returned to China under a deal that ended British rule in 1997. The baby-milk shortage is the latest in a string of issues that have troubled ties between the capitalist city and communist mainland.

Hong Kong people are so frustrated over the baby milk they have turned to U.S. President Barack Obama for help, launching a petition on a White House web site saying babies in the financial center faced malnutrition and their government is failing to solve the problem.

As of Friday evening, the petition had attracted 13,422 signatures since it was launched on Tuesday. It needs to secure 100,000 by February 28 to draw a response from the U.S. government.

Demand for Hong Kong's high quality and regulated infant formula brands shot up in 2008 when a melamine milk powder scandal made nearly 300,000 mainland Chinese children sick.

Cans of infant formula Frisolac Gold 1 were on sale for HK$260 ($33.52) at a pharmacy in Hong Kong's Mongkok district on Friday. It sells for 261 yuan ($41.97) at 360buy.com, an online retailer in China.

Pharmacy owner Charles Mui said he tried not to promote smuggling: "I only sell milk powder to customers who really use the products to feed their babies."

Chinese visitors have also been snapping up milk powder products in Europe and Australia, while the former Portuguese territory of Macau, across the mouth of the Pearl River from Hong Kong, announced a plan on Monday to give city parents priority in buying baby formula.

Recent fears over the quality of chicken in China hit sales at mainland branches of McDonald's and Yum's KFC, and further undermined consumer confidence.

($1 = 7.7555 Hong Kong dollars) ($1 = 6.2188 Chinese yuan)

(Additional reporting by Venus Wu and Stefanie McIntyre; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree and Robert Birsel)

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(Reuters) - Research In Motion Ltd's glitzy unveiling of the long-delayed line of BlackBerry smartphones on Wednesday and a new corporate name failed to impress Wall Street analysts, with at least three downgrading the company's stock.

RIM, which renamed itself BlackBerry, showcased two devices, Z10 and Q10, running on its new BB10 operating system as the smartphone pioneer looks for a fresh start.

"Despite recent enthusiasm for RIM's new BB10 devices, we see limited scope for traction in the hypercompetitive smartphone market," Credit Suisse analysts wrote in a note.

RIM faces an uphill struggle in terms of gaining smartphone market share, the Credit Suisse analysts said, downgrading the stock to "underperform" from "neutral".

RIM's Nasdaq-listed shares were set to open 3 percent lower on Thursday. They closed 12 percent down on Wednesday at $13.78. Its Toronto-listed shares also fell by the same margin to close at C$13.86.

RIM launched its first BlackBerry in 1999 and quickly cornered the market for secure emails, but its market share plummeted after customers jumped ship to Apple Inc's iPhone and devices using Google Inc's Android technology.

Analysts at Evercore Partners said they did not expect the new BB10 devices to cause a stir among customers, and cut their rating to "equal weight" from "underweight".

"The new hardware and operating system is a dramatic improvement versus RIMM's older products but expect a muted consumer response due to RIMM's damaged brand image," they said.

Barclays Capital analysts wrote in a note that RIM had the best possible device launch it could have hoped for, but there were many challenges ahead.

The analysts said average sales prices might be too high for many emerging market users and raised questions about how quickly businesses would adopt the new devices.

Analysts were also concerned about the delay in the launch of the devices in the United States. RIM said the devices would not be available in the country until March.

National Bank Financial analysts said the delay was very disappointing since the U.S. enterprise, government and consumer is the most important market for the Z10.

The Z10 touchscreen device will be the first of the two models to hit the market, with a rollout that starts in Britain on Thursday.

(Reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed in Bangalore; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

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TRURO, England (Reuters) - An estate owned by descendants of the 19th century British aristocrat for whom Earl Grey tea was named is turning history on its head by selling English tea to China.

The Tregothnan estate in the southwestern English county of Cornwall started selling tea from its tiny plantation in 2005 and last year produced about 10 metric tons (11.023 tons) of tea and infusions.

Although a drop in the ocean of global tea production, which the UK Tea Council estimated to be about 4.3 million metric tons, Tregothnan has found a niche for its products by trading on England's historical reputation as a nation of tea-lovers.

"It's unique. There's no one else who's growing tea in England and putting English tea on the market," owner Evelyn Boscawen told Reuters.

The long history of immersing tea leaves in hot water for a refreshing drink is not lost on the son of the current Viscount Falmouth and a descendant of British Prime Minister Charles Grey, for whom the bergamot-flavored Earl Grey tea is named and whose Reform Act of 1832 sowed the seeds of modern parliamentary democracy and universal suffrage in Britain.

Chinese tea has been coming to Britain since the East India Company first imported it in the 17th century for consumption by wealthy aristocrats.

By the Victorian era, taking tea had become a regular ritual at almost every level of society from elaborate afternoon tea for the rich in country houses to tea and gruel for the working poor as depicted by author Charles Dickens.

But the Boscawens at Tregothnan are bucking the historic trend of tea flowing from East to West by beginning to export some of their wares to China and elsewhere.

"We do see China as an opportunity at the moment," Boscawen said. "The Chinese are great lovers of buying exotic things from all over the world. Even if it might have come from China (originally)."

Tea, native to Asia, is not traditionally grown in Britain but can be cultivated outdoors at Tregothnan, which is situated in England's southwest and benefits from an unusual microclimate similar to that of Darjeeling in India.

Less similar to India is the tiny scale of production at Tregothnan, which might be large enough to be considered a small Darjeeling tea garden, the English estate's commercial and garden director Jonathan Jones said.

"We went into this right from the outset as being able to put the English into English tea," Jones said. "We weren't ever looking at being the new India or China, that's ridiculous."

HIGH TEA

Tregothnan projected sales of teas and infusions of 2 million pounds ($3.14 million) in 2013, with 1 million pounds coming from exports.

This is a miniscule sum in comparison to the global export market, with the world's largest black tea exporter, Kenya, predicting tea exports earnings of $1.33 billion in 2013.

But the small English operation is attracting attention, including from Chinese state television, which pitched up for several days of filming for a program to be aired in the coming months to hundreds of millions of viewers.

Tregothnan is also hoping to open a franchise of tea houses named "Festival of Tea", selling tea in a coffee-house style. They plan to open one such outlet this year in Shanghai, after "serious interest from Chinese investors," Jones said.

The export market is also a place where Tregothnan hopes to find customers willing to meet its higher prices. Small-scale production and its location means its teas can cost up to 20 times as much per cup as the cheapest market blends.

"We're in recession, but other countries aren't, so it makes sense to export," general manager Andy Phillips said. "The key is not to get dragged into competing on price."

Tregothnan has targeted the high end of the market in Britain, selling some of its products to expensive hotels like the Savoy and Claridge's, which are already major tourist destinations for expensive English afternoon teas.

Referencing the stereotypical English love of a good brew is a big part of Tregothnan's marketing strategy.

"There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea," is the quote attributed to Basque philosopher Bernard-Paul Heroux that adorns individual packets containing the estate's tea bags.

With a portion of its tea bushes nestled in the estate's pleasure gardens, Tregothnan looks more like a vast country estate than an agricultural business, and its owners live on the site which has been the family home since 1335.

Tregothnan's historic setting, with its imposing country house and graceful grounds, is important for the brand.

"It's an enormous story that goes into the whole product," owner Boscawen said.

Tregothnan is part of a wider trend of small tea producers in strange parts of the world, according to Jane Pettigrew, a tea expert and author of several books on the subject.

"People are planting tea in the most extraordinary places at the moment," she said.

"There are people in Hawaii growing tea, there are people in Canada planting tea, and there are people up in Scotland planting tea."

($1 = 0.6367 British pounds)

(Reporting By Hannah Vinter, editing by Stephen Eisenhammer and Paul Casciato)

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HONOLULU (AP) More than two-thirds of Hawaii's state senators have signed onto a bill to protect celebrities from paparazzi, giving them power to sue over unwanted beach photos and other snapshots on the islands.

And the bill's author says he's pushing the law at the request of Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler, the former "American Idol" judge who recently bought a new home in Maui.

A representative for Aerosmith declined comment late Thursday night, saying Tyler was not immediately available.

Maui Democrat Sen. Kalani English told The Associated Press the so-called "Steven Tyler Act" will help Hawaii's tourism and film industries, encouraging famous people to come here without fear of being stalked by paparazzi.

"These are my consituents as well," English said. "Public figures have a right to reasonable privacy. There's a balance that we need to create."

The bill would open people up to civil lawsuits if they invade the privacy of public figures by taking or selling photos or videos. It defines invasion of privacy as capturing or trying to capture images or sound of people "in a manner that is offensive to a reasonable person" during personal or family moments. It does not specify places where pictures would be OK or whether public places would be exempt. The bill says it would apply to people who are take photos from boats or anywhere else within ocean waters.

"Although their celebrity status may justify a lower expectation of privacy, the Legislature finds that sometimes the paparazzi go too far to disturb the peace and tranquility afforded celebrities who escape to Hawaii for a quiet life," English wrote in the bill.

Longtime Hawaii media lawyer Jeff Portnoy said the legislation is vague and panders to celebrities.

"It's unnecessary, it's potentially unconstitutional and it flies in the face of decades of privacy law," he said.

He said that it's hard to know how the court would interpret the state constitutional provision for the right to privacy in terms of this bill, but that based upon privacy-related court precedents, the law would be unnecessary.

The bill has only been introduced and referred to committee; lawmakers haven't set a date to discuss it yet. While 18 of 25 of the state's senators have signed on, including the Senate majority leader, it's unclear whether the bill would stand a chance in the state House.

English said he believes the bill is constitutional. He said the state has a provision in its constitution to protect the right to privacy.

"Generally, we've respected people's privacy but we have a different time now," English said.

Like other destinations, Hawaii has a steady stream of high-profile visitors. President Barack Obama vacations on Oahu once a year with his family, while Lance Armstrong escaped to the Big Island last month after a tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey at his home in Texas.

___

Anita Hofschneider can be reached on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ahofschneider .

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TOKYO (Reuters) - Sony Corp will this month host its first major Playstation meeting in two years, sparking a flare-up in online speculation the Japanese consumer electronics giant is preparing to unveil the successor to its 70 million-selling PS3 games console.

Sony declined to say whether it would release a new product at the meeting in New York on February 20. "We will be talking about the Playstation business," spokesman Masaki Tsukakoshi said on Friday. A Google search for "Sony Feb 20 Playstation" returned more than 7 million hits.

The last time Sony held a Playstation event, in January 2011, it presented a protoype of its handheld Vita console. Before that, it convened a gathering in 2005 two months after it first demonstrated the PS3 concept. A meeting in 1999 revealed designs for the PS2.

It has been more than six years since Sony launched the PS3 home console, a longer gap than between it and its PS2 predecessor, adding to the anticipation that it will soon disclose its next gaming concept.

Since Sony's last home console launch, the games market has been transformed by the boom in smartphones and tablet computers that have wooed players with free or cheap games.

Sony and other console makers Nintendo Co Ltd and Microsoft Corp now have to contend with competition from hand-held devices made by Apple Inc, Samsung Electronics and others.

Analysts expect that tablets and other mobile devices will match the power and graphics of today's games consoles within a few years.

Struggling under competitive pressure, Nintendo on Wednesday cut its sales target for the Wii U, successor to its 100 million-selling Wii, to 4 million machines by the end of March from its launch in November, compared with an earlier forecast for 5.5 million.

(Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - It's official: R&B diva Rihanna says she is back together with Chris Brown, who is still on probation for assaulting her in 2009, saying "It's different now."

"I decided it was more important for me to be happy," Rihanna told Rolling Stone magazine in an interview published on Wednesday on its website.

"I wasn't going to let anybody's opinion get in the way of that. Even if it's a mistake, it's my mistake," she said of her renewed romance with singer Brown, 23, that has prompted consternation from fans and celebrity media because of their history.

"After being tormented for so many years, being angry and dark, I'd rather just live my truth and take the backlash," said Rihanna, 24, adding, "I can handle it."

The couple's reconciliation had been rumored for months, even before the pair unveiled a duet, "Nobody's Business," in November. That track was included on Rihanna's latest album "Unapologetic."

Brown pleaded guilty in 2009 to beating and punching Rihanna. He was sentenced to community service, anger management classes, given a restraining order and is still on probation.

The Barbadian singer told Oprah Winfrey in an emotional interview in August that she and Brown now had a "very close friendship," and that she still loved him.

"When you add up the pieces from the outside, it's not the cutest puzzle in the world," Rihanna admitted to Rolling Stone, which hits newsstands this week with her gracing the cover above the headline, "Rihanna Crazy In Love."

"You see us walking somewhere ... and you think you know. But it's different now. We don't have those types of arguments anymore. We talk," she said. "We value each other."

But she noted that Brown is on probation with her as well, saying, "He doesn't have the luxury of (messing) up again."

"That's just not an option ... And I wouldn't have gone this far if I ever thought that was a possibility."

The interview was published three days after Brown's latest dustup, which involved fellow musician Frank Ocean, over a parking space at a West Hollywood recording studio. Ocean has said he wants Brown prosecuted following the Sunday brawl.

In 2012 Rihanna was rated by Time and Forbes magazines as among the world's and celebrity arena's most powerful people.

(Reporting by Chris Michaud; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Philip Barbara)

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - The smartphone patent wars have lit up courtrooms around the world. Next up: the smartphone case wars.

The makers of protective cases that shield cell phones from coffee spills and sticky-fingered toddlers are entangled in countless lawsuits seeking to protect their designs.

The fights come as the mobile accessories market has gone upscale with some cases made by luxury designers costing more than the phones they cover. Some cases are billed as virtually destruction-proof, said to protect precious electronics from crushing blows or cresting waves.

Smartphones themselves are at the heart of a global patent fight, with Apple Inc battling South Korean giant Samsung Electronics Co over the design of the iPhone and iPad.

But now similar fights are escalating over what swaddles the gadgets, as the smartphone case market has become a roughly $1 billion annual industry, according to NPD Group, a market research firm. More than 100 million Apple and Samsung phones were shipped in the most recent quarter, making for more demand.

The damage claims in the case design fights are tiny compared with the smartphone wars, but the lawsuits could help spur a shakeout in a crowded market.

The biggest industry players sell their products at Apple and AT&T Inc retail stores, as well as at retailers such as Best Buy Co Inc. They have had success in getting court judgments against Chinese counterfeiters and domestic sellers of knock-offs, but the lawsuits involving one designer against another aren't as easily resolved.

Otter Products Inc, the maker of OtterBox cases, has become a frequent visitor to the courthouse.

The Colorado-based company has filed lawsuits in federal court in its home state against LifeProof, also known as Treefrog Developments Inc, and Mophie LLC for alleged patent infringement involving waterproof cases for iPhones, iPods and other devices. Mophie and LifeProof in court papers have denied the allegations.

Otterbox and Mophie did not respond to requests for comment. LifeProof declined to comment on pending litigation. Company spokesman Jonathan Wegner said, however, that LifeProof has programs in place to protect its own intellectual property.

The Ballistic Case Co, based in Florida, has also been a repeat plaintiff. The company has sued rivals Cell-Nerds LLC and Boxwave Corp for allegedly copying the look of its rugged "Shell Gel" series of cases, which feature a dotted back and come in an array of colors.

Designers invest significant resources in case styles and deserve legal protection, said Alan Weisberg, a Ballistic attorney.

The company has sold more than $12 million worth of Shell Gel cases, according to court documents, and they are available at major retailers. Both Cell-Nerds and Boxwave are smaller enterprises that sell cases online. The Shell Gel models are priced at about $35, while similar Cell-Nerds and Boxwave cases go for less than $10.

Earlier this month, a Miami federal judge allowed Ballistic's case against Cell-Nerds to move forward, while the Boxwave case is in its early stages in the same court. Ballistic claims it has so-called "trade dress rights" to the design of its cases and wants similar, rival products off the market.

An attorney for Cell-Nerds, Ury Fisher, said the company does not think Ballistic has accurately described its trade dress rights, and he noted that such cases are difficult to prove because plaintiffs have to show their product is readily recognizable to consumers.

An attorney for Boxwave did not respond to a request for comment.

For patent-based lawsuits to succeed, plaintiffs will need to prove another company is infringing their patents and may also have to show what is innovative about their designs and worthy of protection.

If found to infringe, some companies could be forced out of the market, said intellectual property attorney Christopher Carani of law firm McAndrews, Held & Malloy.

So far, however, the in-fighting among case designers does not show signs of slowing down the industry.

Casemakers have trotted out models they say are tricked out to withstand two tons of force or can be used to film movies underwater. At the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas -- where new case designs seemed to be on display everywhere -- one maker even showed off a case lined in soft orange putty that is designed to become "rock hard" if the phone is dropped.

(Reporting By Erin Geiger Smith; Editing by Martha Graybow and Kenneth Barry)

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TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index opened lower on Thursday, weighed down by Potash Corp after its fourth-quarter profit fell and an 11 percent drop in Research In Motion Ltd the day after the BlackBerry maker released a new line of phones.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index was down 35.22 points, or 0.28 percent, at 12,759.22 shortly after the open.

(Reporting by John Tilak; Editing by Jeffrey Hodgson)

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California man who has admitted to fabricating Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o's girlfriend in an elaborate hoax and playing her part over the phone told talk show host Phil McGraw he felt a deep romantic love for Te'o, McGraw said on Wednesday.

"Here we have a young man that fell deeply, romantically in love," McGraw told the television morning show "Today" to discuss his two part interview with Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, which will air on "Dr. Phil" on Thursday and Friday.

"I asked him straight up, 'Was this a romantic relationship with you?,' and he says yes. I said, 'Are you then therefore gay?' And he said, 'When you put it that way, yes.' And then he caught himself and said, 'I am confused,'" McGraw told "Today."

Te'o has said in a previous media interview he is not gay.

The fake girlfriend hoax involving Te'o, who was a finalist for college football's highest individual honour the Heisman trophy, caused a sensation when it was revealed earlier this month on news website Deadspin.com.

Tuiasosopo says he played the part of Lennay Kekua, the fictitious woman who was Te'o's girlfriend in the hoax. Te'o, 22, had spoken about the woman in media interviews, and reports described her surviving a car accident and then dying of leukaemia in September.

Te'o has said since the hoax was exposed that he was the victim of an elaborate prank, that he never met Kekua and that his acquaintance Tuiasosopo admitted to him that he was the one who played the part of Lennay.

Dr. Phil said in a segment on "Today" on Wednesday that after an extensive interview with Tuiasosopo, he believes Te'o had no role in creating the hoax.

"Absolutely, unequivocally, no," McGraw said, in pinning the blame for the scheme on Tuiasosopo.

The NBC morning program also showed some comments Tuiasosopo made in his interview for the "Dr. Phil" daytime program.

"There are many times where Manti and Lennay had broken up," Tuiasosopo told "Dr. Phil."

"But something would bring them back together, whether it was something going on in his life or in Lennay's life, in this case in my life," Tuiasosopo said.

Tuiasosopo, 22, is from southern California and played high school football in 2005 at Antelope Valley High north of Los Angeles, according to media reports. Tuaisosopo's attorney had previously told reporters his client was behind the hoax.

Before the hoax was exposed, a photo of a woman who was described as Lennay Kekua was presented in media reports about Te'o and his struggles to overcome her death and that of his grandmother, who actually did pass away.

But the photo of Kekua was taken from a Facebook profile of a California woman who said she was unaware of the scheme, according to Deadspin.com.

Te'o told Katie Couric in a broadcast of her show "Katie" last week that he received a telephone call from the person claiming to be Kekua on December 6 - two days before the Heisman presentation. But he said he was not really certain she never existed until Tuiasosopo's later confession to him.

The linebacker, during the Katie Couric interview, presented a voice mail he received from the person he said he thought was Kekua. "Doesn't that sound like a girl?" Te'o told Couric.

Te'o also told Couric he is not gay. "No, far from it," he said.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Andrew Hay)

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LOS ANGELES (AP) Lindsay Lohan briefly appeared in court Wednesday for the first time in nearly a year and left with a new attorney, new trial date and new judge.

Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner shook her head when she saw Lohan seated with her attorney, just months after the judge had warned the "Liz and Dick" star to grow up and stay out of trouble.

The actress was required to attend the pretrial hearing involving three misdemeanor counts filed after a car crash last summer. Lohan has pleaded not guilty to lying to police, reckless driving and obstructing officers from performing their duties.

Sautner previously sent her to jail, placed her under house arrest and forced her to perform morgue cleanup duty in another case.

Sautner warned Lohan on Wednesday that she could face jail time for a possible probation violation, even if she is acquitted of the counts filed after her sports car crashed into a dump truck.

Lohan was on probation at the time of the wreck and could be sentenced to 245 days in jail if a judge determines her actions in the crash were a violation of her sentence in a theft case.

Sautner, however, won't be handling Lohan's upcoming case. The judge said she is retiring before the next court hearing on March 1. Lohan will not be required to attend that hearing.

Lohan's new trial date is March 18.

Lohan was accompanied to court by her new attorney, Mark Heller, who said he wanted to get the case resolved as quickly as possible.

The judge quipped that it would only solve her legal trouble "on this coast" a reference to her two arrests in New York since being released from supervised probation in Los Angeles in March. No charges have been filed in those cases.

Heller, a New York attorney, was granted permission to handle Lohan's California cases. He said he was meeting with prosecutors to determine how to proceed.

Sautner gave him more time by delaying the trial but said, "This is not the most complex case we've ever seen."

Lohan appeared in court in a black dress. She spoke only briefly to confirm that she was switching attorneys and no longer wanted her longtime lawyer, Shawn Holley, to represent her.

___

Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actress Lindsay Lohan will stand trial on March 18 on charges she lied to California police about a June car crash and violated probation, raising the possibility she could be sent back to jail.

A judge in Los Angeles on Wednesday set the trial date on charges related to the car crash and said the court will hold a hearing at the same time on whether Lohan in the incident violated probation from a 2011 jewelry theft.

The star of the movie "Mean Girls," who has been in and out of rehab and jail since 2007, wore a black sleeveless dress and looked tired at the brief court hearing. She arrived in Los Angeles late Tuesday from New York and has abandoned her longtime lawyer in favor of new attorney Mark Heller.

Lohan has pleaded not guilty to three misdemeanor charges of reckless driving, lying to police and obstructing police when she said she was not behind the wheel of her sports car, which smashed into a truck in Santa Monica, California in June.

Lohan, 26, left court without speaking to the media.

The former "Parent Trap" child star has been in and out of trouble since a 2007 arrest for drunk driving and cocaine possession.

Sautner warned Lohan that she could be found in violation of probation even if she is acquitted on charges connected to the car crash because the standard of proof is lower.

Lohan was ordered to appear at Wednesday's hearing because she decided to switch lawyers, firing longtime attorney Shawn Holley this month.

She was arrested in New York on a misdemeanor assault charge on the same day in November that the Santa Monica car crash charges were filed. The Manhattan district attorney's office has not filed a criminal complaint in the assault case.

Lohan's appearance in Los Angeles had been in doubt after Heller wrote to the court earlier this week saying was suffering from an upper respiratory infection and could not appear.

"Glad to see you're feeling better," Judge Stephanie Sautner told Lohan at the hearing.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey, editing by Jill Serjeant and Cynthia Osterman)

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California man who has admitted to fabricating Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o's fake girlfriend in an elaborate hoax told talk show host Phil McGraw he felt a deep romantic love for the football player, McGraw said on Wednesday.

"Here we have a young man that fell deeply, romantically in love," McGraw told the television morning show "Today" to discuss his two part interview with Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, which will air on "Dr. Phil" on Thursday and Friday.

"I asked him straight up, 'Was this a romantic relationship with you?,' and he says yes. I said, 'Are you then therefore gay?' And he said, 'When you put it that way, yes.' And then he caught himself and said, 'I am confused,'" McGraw told "Today."

Te'o has said in a previous media interview he is not gay.

The fake girlfriend hoax involving Te'o, who was a finalist for college football's highest individual honor the Heisman trophy, caused a sensation when it was revealed earlier this month on news website Deadspin.com.

Tuiasosopo says he played the part over the phone of Lennay Kekua, the fictitious woman who was Te'o's girlfriend in the hoax. Te'o, 22, had spoken about the woman in media interviews, and reports described her surviving a car accident and then dying of leukemia in September.

Te'o has said since the hoax was exposed that he was the victim of an elaborate prank, that he never met Kekua and that his acquaintance Tuiasosopo admitted to him that he was the one who played the part of Lennay.

Dr. Phil said in a segment on "Today" on Wednesday that after an extensive interview with Tuiasosopo, he believes Te'o had no role in creating the hoax.

"Absolutely, unequivocally, no," McGraw said, in pinning the blame for the scheme on Tuiasosopo.

The NBC morning program also showed some comments Tuiasosopo made in his interview for the "Dr. Phil" daytime program.

"There are many times where Manti and Lennay had broken up," Tuiasosopo told "Dr. Phil."

"But something would bring them back together, whether it was something going on in his life or in Lennay's life, in this case in my life," Tuiasosopo said.

Tuiasosopo, 22, is from southern California and played high school football in 2005 at Antelope Valley High north of Los Angeles, according to media reports. Tuaisosopo's attorney had previously told reporters his client was behind the hoax.

Before the hoax was exposed, a photo of a woman who was described as Lennay Kekua was presented in media reports about Te'o and his struggles to overcome her death and that of his grandmother, who actually did pass away.

But the photo of Kekua was taken from a Facebook profile of a California woman who said she was unaware of the scheme, according to Deadspin.com.

Te'o told Katie Couric in a broadcast of her show "Katie" last week that he received a telephone call from the person claiming to be Kekua on December 6 - two days before the Heisman presentation. But he said he was not really certain she never existed until Tuiasosopo's later confession to him.

The linebacker, during the Katie Couric interview, presented a voice mail he received from the person he said he thought was Kekua. "Doesn't that sound like a girl?" Te'o told Couric.

Te'o also told Couric he is not gay. "No, far from it," he said.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Andrew Hay)

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NEW YORK (AP) An online auction of Andy Warhol's works will give a broader audience the chance to own a piece of his pop art.

It is Christie's International's first online-only Warhol sale. About 125 paintings, drawings, photographs and prints will be offered from Feb. 26 through March 5. Pre-sale estimates range from $600 to $70,000.

The auction is being held in partnership with The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

The works can be previewed online before the sale.

Bidders can browse, bid and receive instant updates by email or phone if another bid exceeds theirs.

The first live auction raised $17 million for the Warhol Foundation's endowment.

Warhol is famous for his silk screened images of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe and detailed renderings of Campbell's Soup cans.

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Online: www.christies.com/warhol

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TOKYO (AP) Nintendo's president Thursday ruled out price cuts for its new Wii U home console as a way to boost sales, vowing to become profitable again in its core businesses as smartphones and tablets increasingly threaten specialized game machines.

Satoru Iwata, speaking at a Tokyo hotel to investors and reporters a day after earnings were released, acknowledged the sales momentum for the Wii U, as well as the 3DS hand-held game machine, had run out of steam during the key year-end shopping season, especially in the U.S.

But he said no price cuts were in the works. Price cuts are common in the gaming industry to woo buyers, but the move can backfire by trimming revenue. The Wii U now sells for about $300 in the U.S. and 25,000 yen in Japan.

"We are already offering it at a good price," he said.

Iwata said he expects operating profit of more than 100 billion yen in the 12 months ending March 2014, promising that as "a commitment."

But he acknowledged more work was needed to have consumers understand the Wii U, which went on sale globally late last year, as well as producing more game software to draw buyers.

All game machines have suffered in recent years from the advent of smartphones and other mobile devices that have become more sophisticated and offer games and other forms of entertainment.

Nintendo returned to net profit for the April-December period of 2012 from deep losses the previous year, but that was due to a perk from a weaker yen, which helps Japanese exporters such as Nintendo.

Its operating result, which removes currency fluctuations, was a loss of 5.86 billion yen ($64 million), and Nintendo expects that to swell to a 20 billion yen ($220 million) loss for the full business year ending March 2013 as sales of its game consoles fall short of expectations.

Iwata said Nintendo is preparing more game software, including those developed in-house, for the end of this year.

Kyoto-based Nintendo, which makes Super Mario and Pokemon games, lowered its full year sales forecast Wednesday to 670 billion yen ($7.4 billion) from 810 billion yen ($8.9 billion). It also said it was going to sell fewer Wii U consoles for the fiscal year through March than its previous projection. The Wii U has a touch-screen tablet controller called GamePad and a TV-watching feature called TVii.

The company forecasts it will sell 4 million Wii U consoles for the current fiscal year, ending March 31, down from its earlier estimate of 5.5 million units. The Wii U, which went on sale late last year, was the first major new game console to arrive in stores in years.

Nintendo, also behind the Donkey Kong and Zelda games, lowered its full year sales forecast for Wii U game software units to 16 million from 24 million.

Iwata said last year holiday sales quickly dissipated in the U.S. and some European nations, including Great Britain, the key market. He said the U.S. home console sales were the worst for Nintendo in nearly a decade.

He said Nintendo needs hit games to push console sales, and the company remains confident Wii U will prove more popular with time.

"The chicken-and-game problem has not been solved," he said of the need for both game software and machine hardware.

"I feel a deep sense of responsibility for not being able to produce results for our year-end business," said Iwata.

He declined to say what he would do if the company failed to attain the promised operating profits.

Nintendo sank into a loss the previous fiscal year largely because of price cuts for its hand-held 3DS game machine, which shows three-dimensional imagery without special glasses. That machine is also struggling in most global markets.

Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo's famed game designer, said what was missing were games for the Wii U that made its appeal clear. The progress in smartphones has also posed a challenge for Nintendo, he said.

"People have to try it to see it is fun," Miyamoto said of Wii U.

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Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at www.twitter.com/yurikageyama

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Research In Motion Ltd. showed off two new BlackBerry phones on Wednesday. They will run the new BlackBerry 10 operating system. Here's how the phones compare with Apple's iPhone 5 and Samsung's Galaxy S III.

BlackBerry Z10 tech specs:

Display: 4.2-inch (diagonal) with a resolution of 1280 by 768 pixels (356 pixels per inch)

Keyboard: Touch screen only

Memory capacity: 16 gigabytes, expandable with microSD card of up to 32 gigabytes.

Price: Varies by carrier, some of which have yet to announce details. Verizon Wireless says it will sell it for $200 with a two-year service agreement.

Size: height: 5.12 inches; width: 2.58 inches; depth: 0.35 inch (130 x 65.6 x 9 mm)

Weight: 4.78 ounces (135.4 grams)

Cameras: 8-megapixel camera on back, 2-megapixel on front.

Video recording: high-definition for rear camera (1080p comparable to the resolution of a 40-inch flat panel TV); lower resolution for front (720p)

Battery life: talk time is up to 10 hours on 3G. Up to 60 hours of audio playback and 11 hours of video playback. Battery can be replaced by user with a spare.

U.S. wireless carriers: Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile and others.

Operating system: BlackBerry 10

Near-field communications: A chip lets the phone act as a credit card at some payment terminals and share data wirelessly when tapped against some other phones.

Availability: In U.S. in March. Varies elsewhere, including U.K. on Thursday, Canada on Feb. 5 and Latin America by end of March.

BlackBerry Q10 tech specs:

Display: 3.1-inch (diagonal) with a resolution of 720 by 720 pixels (330 pixels per inch)

Keyboard: Touch-screen and 35-key physical keyboards. Physical keyboard will have back light, with language-specific keyboards such as QWERTY and AZERTY depending on market.

Memory capacity: 16 gigabytes, expandable with microSD card of up to 64 gigabytes.

Price: Not yet announced.

Size: height: 4.71 inches; width: 2.63 inches; depth: 0.41 inch (119.6 x 66.8 x 10.35 mm)

Weight: 4.90 ounces (139 grams)

Cameras: 8-megapixel camera on back, 2-megapixel on front.

Video recording: high-definition for rear camera (1080p comparable to the resolution of a 40-inch flat panel TV); lower resolution for front (720p)

Battery life: Not yet announced.

U.S. wireless carriers: AT&T, Sprint and others.

Operating system: BlackBerry 10

Near-field communications: A chip lets the phone act as a credit card at some payment terminals and share data wirelessly when tapped against some other phones.

Availability: In some markets in April, but unknown when it will be available in the U.S.

iPhone 5 tech specs:

Display: 4-inch (diagonal) with a resolution of 1136 by 640 pixels (326 pixels per inch).

Keyboard: Touch screen only

Memory capacity: 16, 32 or 64 gigabytes, depending on price. There's no way to expand it with memory cards.

Price: Starting at $199, for 16 gigabytes of memory.

Size: height: 4.87 inches; width: 2.31 inches; depth: 0.30 inch (124 x 59 x 7.6 mm)

Weight: 3.95 ounces (112 grams)

Cameras: 8-megapixel camera on back, 1.2-megapixel on front.

Video recording: high-definition (1080p comparable to the resolution of a 40-inch flat panel TV) up to 30 frames per second with audio

Battery life: talk time is up to 8 hours on 3G. Internet works for up to 8 hours on LTE and up to 10 hours on Wi-Fi. Up to 10 hours of video playback. Battery can be replaced by service personnel only.

U.S. wireless carriers: Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint Nextel and others.

Operating system: Apple's iOS 6

Near-field communications: None.

Availability: Sept. 21, 2012, initially in U.S. and selected markets. Expanded throughout the world in subsequent months.

Samsung Galaxy S III tech specs:

Display: 4.8 inches (diagonal) with a resolution of 1280 by 720 pixels (306 pixels per inch).

Keyboard: Touch screen only

Memory capacity: 16 or 32 gigabytes. Can be expanded by up to 64 gigabytes with a memory card.

Price: As low as $99 for basic model, though carriers typically charge $199 with two-year contract.

Size: height: 5.4 inches; width: 2.8 inches; depth: 0.34 inch (137 x 71 x 8.6mm)

Weight: 4.7 ounces. (133 grams)

Cameras: 8-megapixel camera on back, 1.9-megapixel on front.

Video recording: high-definition (1080p comparable to the resolution of a 40-inch flat panel TV) up to 30 frames per second with audio.

Battery life: Up to 9 hours of talk time (depends on network). Battery replaceable by user.

U.S. wireless carriers: Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile and others.

Operating system: Ice Cream Sandwich version of Google's Android (at release).

Near-field communications: A chip lets the phone act as a credit card at some payment terminals and share data wirelessly when tapped against some other phones.

Availability: Worldwide, including U.S. in June 2012 and Europe in May 2012.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Research In Motion Ltd on Wednesday unveiled the long-delayed line of smartphones it hopes will put it on the comeback trail, but it disappointed investors by saying U.S. sales of its all-new BlackBerry 10 devices will not start until March, sending its share price tumbling 12 percent.

Chief Executive Thorsten Heins also announced that RIM was abandoning the name it has used since its inception in 1985 to take the name of its signature product, signaling his hopes for a fresh start for the company that pioneered on-your-hip email.

"From this point forward, RIM becomes BlackBerry," Heins said at the New York launch. "It is one brand; it is one promise."

RIM, which is already starting to call itself BlackBerry, had initially planned to launch the new BlackBerry 10 devices a year ago. But it pushed the release date back twice as it struggled to perfect a new operating system.

Ahead of Wednesday's announcements, analysts had said that any launch after February would be a black mark for the Canada-based company.

"The biggest disappointment was the delay in the U.S., that it will take so long before the devices get going there," said Eric Jackson, founder and managing Partner at Ironfire Capital LLC in New York.

Heins said the delays reflected the need for U.S. carrier testing, although carrier AT&T Inc offered few clues on what that meant. Instead, the carrier merely stated it was enthusiastic about the devices and would announce availability, pricing and other information at a later date.

"Carriers in all other parts of the world get their devices through the testing process significantly faster than the U.S. carriers do," said John Jackson, an analyst at IDC, adding that the U.S. process can often take "weeks" longer.

Nevertheless investors were extremely disappointed with the delay and RIM shares on the Nasdaq ended the day 12 percent lower at $13.78. Its Toronto-listed shares fell by almost the same margin to close at C$13.86.

RIM launched its first BlackBerry back in 1999 as a way for busy executives to stay in touch with their clients and their offices, and the company quickly cornered the market for secure corporate and government emails.

But its star faded as competition rose and the BlackBerry is now a far-behind also-ran in the race for market share, with a 3.4 percent global showing in the fourth quarter - down from 20 percent three years before. Its North American market share is even smaller - a mere 2 percent in the fourth quarter.

RIM shares have tumbled along with the company's market share and the stock is down 90 percent since its 2008 peak. Despite the pullback on Wednesday, RIM's share price has more than doubled over the last four months, reflecting the growing buzz about its new devices.

TOUCH COMPETITION

The new BlackBerry 10 phones will compete with Apple's iPhone and devices using Google's Android technology, both of which have soared above the BlackBerry in a competitive market.

The BlackBerry 10 devices boast fast browsers, new features, smart cameras and - unlike previous BlackBerry models - enter the market primed with a large application library, including services such as Skype and the popular game Angry Birds.

The BlackBerry Z10 touchscreen device, in black or white, will be the first to hit the market, with a country-by-country rollout that starts in Britain on Thursday.

A Q10 model, equipped with a small "qwerty" keyboard that RIM made into its trademark, will launch globally in April.

"I'm still confident that a lot of the subscriber base are going to want the upgrade to BlackBerry 10. It's a very strong improvement over what they currently have. This is not going to cause mass defections from iOS and Android, but it doesn't have to be a success for RIM. You've got to start somewhere," said Jackson of Ironfire, which owns shares in RIM.

The Z10 device won a lukewarm review from The Wall Street Journal's tech blogger Walt Mossberg, who complained of a shortage of apps.

On the other hand, David Pogue, who writes for The New York Times, apologized for describing BlackBerry as doomed in the past. The Z10 touchscreen device was "lovely, fast and efficient, bristling with fresh, useful ideas," he said.

While technology analysts conceded that RIM has done quite a remarkable job on many of the features of BlackBerry 10 and on the array of its app selection for a new platform, many argue it will be a very tough slog for RIM to regain its crown.

"I don't think that RIM will return to its glory days," said Charles Golvin, analyst at Forrester Research. "Success for them looks like staunching the bleeding and clawing back a percentage or point or two of market share."

Announcements about pricing so far have been in line with expectations. U.S. carrier Verizon Wireless said the phone would cost $199 for a two-year contract, while Canada's Rogers Communications is quoting C$149 ($150) for certain three-year plans.

GLITZY LAUNCH

RIM picked a range of venues for its global launch parties, including Dubai's $650-a-night Armani Hotel, which occupies six floors of the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest tower.

The New York event took place in a sprawling basketball facility on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, just north of the Manhattan Bridge. The BlackBerry has been "Re-designed. Re-engineered. Re-invented," RIM said.

RIM, which is splurging on a Super Bowl ad to promote its new phones, also introduced Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Alicia Keys as its global creative director.

"I was in a long-term relationship with BlackBerry and then I started to notice some new, kind of hotter, attractive, sexier phones at the gym, and I kind of broke up with you for something that had a little more bling," Keys said at the New York launch.

"But I always missed the way you organized my life and the way you were there for me at my job, and so I started to have two phones - I was kind of playing the field. But then ... you added a lot more features ... and now, we're exclusively dating again, and I'm very happy," she said.

($1=$1.0029 Canadian)

(Writing by Janet Guttsman; editing by Frank McGurty, Lisa Von Ahn, Peter Galloway, G Crosse)

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MIDLAND CITY, Alabama (Reuters) - The gunman suspected of fatally shooting an Alabama school bus driver before holing up in an underground bunker with a young child is a Vietnam veteran with anti-government views, authorities and an organization that tracks hate groups said on Wednesday.

Law enforcement officials from multiple agencies were bivouacked near the bunker in Midland City but offered few details about an overnight standoff with the shooter that stretched into Wednesday evening.

Authorities said driver Charles Albert Poland Jr., 66, was killed after the gunman boarded a bus ferrying more than 20 children home from school on Tuesday.

The suspect demanded the driver let a student off the bus, Alabama media reported. When Poland refused, the man boarded the bus and shot the driver before taking a 6-year-old kindergarten student and fleeing the scene.

On Wednesday, the gunman remained holed up with the boy in the underground bunker on his property down a dirt road. Dale County Coroner Woodrow Hilboldt said the man and child were barricaded in "some kind of a tornado bunker."

The shooting comes as national debate rages over gun violence, especially in schools, after a gunman shot dead 20 students and six staff members at a Connecticut elementary school last month.

Schools in the area of the Alabama shooting were closed on Wednesday and will remain shuttered for the rest of the week.

Dale County Superintendent Donny Bynum lauded Poland as "a hero...who gave his life to protect 21 students who are now home safely with their families."

The superintendent's assistant said the young boy still being held by the gunman appeared to have been chosen at random.

"Emotions are high, and it's a struggle for us all to make sense of something so senseless, but let us keep this young student, his family and Mr. Poland's family in our thoughts and prayers," Bynum said in a statement.

Reuters could not independently verify the gunman's identity. The Southern Poverty Law Center reported on its Hatewatch blog that a chief investigator with the Dale County Sheriff's Office identified the gunman as 65-year-old Jimmy Lee Dykes.

Investigator Tim Byrd said Dykes' friends and neighbors described him as a "survivalist" who did not trust the government, according to the law center blog.

"He was standoffish, didn't socialize or have any contact with anybody," Byrd told Hatewatch.

Dykes had not been on the law center's radar before the shooting and standoff, and there was nothing to suggest he was a member of any hate group, said senior fellow Mark Potok.

"What it looks like is that he's some kind of anti-government radical and survivalist," Potok told Reuters. "And exactly what that means, we don't know."

Court records show Dykes had been due to appear for a bench trial on Wednesday following his arrest last month on a menacing charge.

James Edward Davis told CNN the arrest stemmed from an altercation he had with Dykes that ended with Dykes allegedly firing two gunshots from a pistol, as Davis sped off in his car.

"He fired the gun twice," said Davis, adding that he had a child inside the vehicle when the shooting occurred.

Neighbors told the Dothan Eagle newspaper they also had seen Dykes walk around his yard late at night with a shotgun and flashlight. Ronda Wilbur, who lives across the street from Dykes, said he once beat her family dog with a lead pipe. The dog later died from his injuries, she said.

(Reporting by Kaija Wilkinson in Mobile, Alabama; Additional reporting and writing by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Tom Brown and Andrew Hay)

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