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.

___

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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NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Labrador retriever held its 22-year reign as America's top dog, but a determined bulldog is gaining ground in the popularity stakes.

The American Kennel Club's annual ranking of most popular dog breeds on Wednesday showed Labradors in the lead, with other large dogs moving up and once-popular smaller breeds such as the Yorkshire terrier and the miniature poodle losing some ground.

"Bigger breeds are making their move," said AKC spokeswoman Lisa Peterson. "The bulldog has muscled his way into the top five," she said, displacing the popular Yorkie, which dropped to sixth.

The No. 2 in popularity was the German shepherd, followed by the golden retriever and the beagle, which swapped the third and fourth spots from last year's rankings, "adding insult to injury for smaller breeds," Peterson joked.

With more than two continuous decades as the United States' most popular breed, the Labrador tied the feat of the poodle, which was tops for 22 straight years in the 1980s and 1990s, AKC said. Poodles took the eighth spot this year.

"Labradors come in different temperaments, just like we do," said Micki Beerman, an owner and fan of the breed.

"I have five, and she never leaves my side," she said of Sheena, a 5-year-old chocolate Labrador who sat next to the Brooklyn resident.

"They're just everyday, intelligent, loving animals," Beerman said.

The AKC also released some regional preferences that indicated bulldogs were becoming a favorite in New York City, taking the No. 2 spot while the French bulldog was third.

"They're a wonderful family pet," enthused Deirdre Nardelli about the bulldog.

Labradors became most popular in New York, while Yorkies plummeted from first to fifth place in the city in just one year.

The AKC revealed its rankings in advance of next month's Westminster Kennel Club dog show, the nation's most prestigious dog competition that culminates with the "best in show" award at Madison Square Garden.

Two new breeds, the Russell terrier and the treeing Walker coonhound, will compete this year.

(Reporting by Chris Michaud; editing by Patricia Reaney and Doina Chiacu)

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TACOMA, Wash. (AP) Wanted: A green thumb with extensive knowledge of the black, or at least gray, market.

As Washington state tries to figure out how to regulate its newly legal marijuana, officials are hiring an adviser on all things weed: how it's best grown, dried, tested, labeled, packaged and cooked into brownies.

Sporting a mix of flannel, ponytails and suits, dozens of those angling for the job turned out Wednesday for a forum in Tacoma, several of them from out of state. The Liquor Control Board, the agency charged with developing rules for the marijuana industry, reserved a convention center hall for a state bidding expert to take questions about the position and the hiring process.

"Since it's not unlikely with this audience, would a felony conviction preclude you from this contract?" asked Rose Habib, an analytical chemist from a marijuana testing lab in Missoula, Mont.

The answer: It depends. A pot-related conviction is probably fine, but a "heinous felony," not so much, responded John Farley, a procurement coordinator with the Liquor Control Board.

Washington and Colorado this fall became the first states to pass laws legalizing the recreational use of marijuana and setting up systems of state-licensed growers, processors and retail stores where adults over 21 can walk in and buy up to an ounce of heavily taxed cannabis.

Both states are working to develop rules for the emerging pot industry. Up in the air is everything from how many growers and stores there should be, to how the marijuana should be tested to ensure people don't get sick.

Sales are due to begin in Washington state in December.

Washington's Liquor Control Board has a long and "very good" history with licensing and regulation, spokesman Mikhail Carpenter said.

"But there are some technical aspects with marijuana we could use a consultant to help us with," Carpenter said.

The board has advertised for consulting services in four categories. The first is "product and industry knowledge" and requires "at least three years of consulting experience relating to the knowledge of the cannabis industry, including but not limited to product growth, harvesting, packaging, product infusion and product safety."

Other categories cover quality testing, including how to test for levels of THC, the compound that gets marijuana users high; statistical analysis of how much marijuana the state's licensed growers should produce; and the development of regulations, a category that requires a "strong understanding of state, local or federal government processes," with a law degree preferred.

Farley said the state hopes to award a single contract covering all four categories, but if no bidder or team of bidders has expertise in all fields regulatory law, statistical analysis and pot growing multiple contracts could be awarded. Or bidders who are strong in one category could team up with those who are strong in another. Bids are due Feb. 15, with the contract awarded in March.

Habib, the chemist, said she's part of a team of marijuana and regulatory experts from Montana who are bidding for the contract. They're fed up with federal raids on medical dispensaries there.

"We want to move here and make it work. We want to be somewhere this is moving forward and being embraced socially," she said.

Khurshid Khoja, a corporate lawyer from San Francisco, wore a suit and sat beside a balding, ponytailed man in a gray sweatshirt Ed Rosenthal, a co-founder of High Times magazine and a recognized expert on marijuana cultivation. They're on a team bidding for the contract.

"I've seen the effect of regulation of marijuana all my life," Khoja said. "I'd like to see a more rational, scientific approach to it."

Several people asked whether winning the contract, or even subcontracting with the winning bidder, would preclude them from getting state licenses to grow, process or sell cannabis. Farley said yes: It would pose a conflict of interest to have the consultant helping develop the regulations being subject to those rules. But once the contract has expired, they could apply for state marijuana licenses, he said.

After the questions ended, the bidders mingled, exchanging business cards and talking about how they might team up. One Seattle-area marijuana grower, a college student who declined to give his name after noting that a dispensary he worked with had been raided by federal authorities in 2011, approached Rosenthal.

"It would be my dream to smoke a bowl with you after this," he said.

___

Johnson can be reached at https://twitter.com/GeneAPseattle

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LOS ANGELES (AP) CBS says the big reveal is coming for "How I Met Your Mother."

The network said Wednesday the sitcom will air its ninth and final season next fall.

And CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler promised that TV's "most mysterious mother" will be unveiled as the show wraps up.

That would be the mystery woman with whom Ted, played by Josh Radnor, ultimately has a family.

The sitcom's cast also includes Neil Patrick Harris, Cobie Smulders, Jason Segel and Alyson Hannigan.

20th Century Fox Television says all the actors will return for the 2013-14 season.

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MIDLAND CITY, Ala. (AP) Police SWAT teams and hostage negotiators were locked in a standoff Wednesday with a gunman authorities say intercepted a school bus, killed the driver, snatched a 6-year-old boy and retreated into a bunker at his home with the kindergartener.

The gunman, identified by neighbors as Jimmy Lee Dykes, a 65-year-old retired truck driver, was known as a menacing figure who once beat a dog to death with a lead pipe, threatened to shoot children for setting foot on his property and patrolled his yard at night with a flashlight and a shotgun.

He had been scheduled to appear in court Wednesday morning to answer charges he shot at his neighbors in a dispute last month over a speed bump.

The standoff dragged on through the night and into the afternoon Wednesday after the gunman boarded a stopped school bus filled with children in the small town of Midland City, population 2,300, on Tuesday afternoon, authorities said.

Sheriff Wally Olsen said the man shot the bus driver when he refused to hand over a 6-year-old child. The gunman then took the kindergartener away.

Dykes was believed to be holed up with the boy in an underground bunker of the sort used to take shelter from a tornado.

"As far as we know there is no relation at all. He just wanted a child for a hostage situation," said Michael Senn, a church pastor who helped comfort the traumatized children after the attack.

The bus driver, Charles Albert Poland Jr., 66, was hailed by locals as a hero who gave his life to protect 21 students.

About 50 vehicles from federal, state and local agencies were clustered Wednesday at the end of a dirt road near Dykes' home. Authorities gave no details on the standoff, and it was unclear whether they were in contact with Dykes or he had made any demands.

Homes nearby were evacuated after authorities found what was believed to be a bomb on his property.

Mike and Patricia Smith, who live across the street from Dykes and whose two children were on the bus when the shooting happened, said their youngsters had a run-in with him about 10 months ago.

"My bulldogs got loose and went over there," Patricia Smith said. "The children went to get them. He threatened to shoot them if they came back."

"He's very paranoid," her husband said. "He goes around in his yard at night with a flashlight and shotgun."

"Everybody up the hill tried to avoid him," he said.

Patricia Smith said her children told her what happened on the bus: Two other children had just been dropped off and the Smith children were next. Dykes stepped onto the bus and grabbed the door so the driver couldn't close it. Dykes told the driver he wanted two boys, 6 to 8 years old, without saying why.

According to Smith, Dykes started down the aisle of the bus and the driver put his arm out to block him. Dykes fired four shots at Poland with a handgun, Smith said.

"He did give his life, saving children," Mike Smith said.

Patricia Smith said her daughter, a high school senior, began corralling the other children and headed for the back of the bus while Dykes and the driver were arguing. Later, Smith's son ran inside his house, telling his mother: "The crazy man across the street shot the bus driver and Mr. Poland won't wake up."

Patricia Smith ran over to the bus and saw the driver slumped over in his seat. Her daughter used another child's cellphone to call 911.

Another neighbor, Ronda Wilbur, said Dykes beat her 120-pound dog with a lead pipe for coming onto his side of the dirt road. The dog died a week later.

"He said his only regret was he didn't beat him to death all the way," Wilbur said. She called animal control, who came out and talked to Dykes, but nothing else happened. "If a man can kill a dog, and beat it with a lead pipe and brag about it, it's nothing until it's going to be people."

Dykes had been scheduled to appear in court Wednesday to face a charge of menacing some neighbors as they drove by his house weeks ago. Claudia Davis said he yelled and fired shots at her, her son and her baby grandson over damage Dykes claimed their pickup truck did to a makeshift speed bump in the dirt road. No one was hurt.

"Before this happened, I would see him at several places and he would just stare a hole through me," Davis said. "On Monday I saw him at a laundromat and he seen me when I was getting in my truck, and he just stared and stared and stared at me."

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NEW YORK (AP) Barbra Streisand will perform at the Oscars next month, the first time she's performed during an Academy Awards broadcast in 36 years.

Streisand won the Academy Award for best original song for "Evergreen" in 1977. She also sang the theme from "A Star Is Born" that night.

She won the Oscar for best actress for 1968's "Funny Girl."

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences also announced Wednesday that British singer Adele will perform at the Oscars. She and producer Paul Epworth are nominated for best original song for the James Bond theme song, "Skyfall."

The 85th Academy Awards air live Feb. 24 on ABC from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

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Online:

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Research In Motion Ltd unveiled the long-delayed line of smartphones it hopes will put it on the comeback trail on Wednesday but it disappointed investors by saying U.S. sales of its all-new BlackBerry 10 will start only in March.

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 smartphones in 2011. But it pushed the date back twice as it struggled to work with a new operating system.

Ahead of Wednesday's announcements, analysts had said that any launch after February would be a black mark for the Canadian 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 offered few clues on what that meant.

"We are very enthusiastic about the devices. We will announce pricing, availability, and other information at a later date. Beyond that, nothing to add," said spokesman Mark Siegel.

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 Canadian company quickly cornered the market for secure corporate and government email.

But its star faded as competition rose. 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 worse: a mere 2 percent in the fourth quarter.

RIM shares tumbled along with the company's market share, and the stock is down 90 percent from its 2008 peak.

The shares fell as much as 8 percent on Wednesday, although they are still more than twice the level of their September 2012 low, reflecting ever-louder buzz about the 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 roll-out that starts in Britain on Thursday.

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

The Z10 device won a lukewarm review from Wall Street Journal tech blogger Walt Mossberg, who complained of missing or lagging features and a shortage of apps.

But 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.

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 Superbowl 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."

($1=$1.0029 Canadian)

(Writing by Janet Guttsman; Editing by Frank McGurty, Lisa Von Ahn and Peter Galloway)

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NEW YORK (AP) Justin Timberlake will be rocking that suit and tie at the Grammy Awards.

The Recording Academy announced Wednesday that Timberlake will perform at the Feb. 10 awards show in Los Angeles.

The 32-year-old pop star returned to music earlier this month when he released the single, "Suit & Tie," which features Jay-Z. The song is a Top 5 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

His performance at the Grammys will be Timberlake's first musical appearance on television in years. Most recently, he's appeared in movies like "The Social Network" and "Friends With Benefits."

Timberlake's third solo album, "The 20/20 Experience," will be released March 19. His last album was the 2006 multiplatinum effort, "FutureSex/LoveSounds."

The Grammys will air live on CBS from the Staples Center.

___

Online:

http://www.grammy.com/

http://countdown.justintimberlake.com/

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LONDON (AP) A Pakistani girl whose defiance of the Taliban turned her into an international icon is headed toward a full recovery once she undergoes a final surgery to reconstruct her skull, doctors said Wednesday.

Dr. Dave Rosser of Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital said that 15-year-old Malala Yousufzai needs the operation to replace the bone shattered when a Taliban gunman, angered at her objection to the group's restrictions on girls' education, sent a bullet through her skull. Rosser said that Malala had made a "remarkable recovery."

"She's very lively, she's got a great sense of humor," Rosser told journalists at the hospital. "She's not naive at all about what happened to her and the situation she's looking forward to in terms of being a high-profile person, and potentially a high-profile target. She's not naive to any of that, but she remains incredibly determined, incredibly cheerful and incredibly determined to speak for her cause."

That cause has turned Malala into a symbol for a girl's right to an education.

At the age of 11, she began writing a blog under a pseudonym for the BBC about life under the Taliban in Pakistan's picturesque Swat Valley, which Taliban militants briefly overran. After the military ousted them in 2009, she began publicly speaking out about the need for girls' education. She appeared frequently in the media and was given one of the country's highest civilian honors for her bravery.

Malala was shot on Oct. 9 as she headed home from school. The Taliban said they targeted her because she promoted "Western thinking," but the attempt to murder a teenage girl over her desire to go to school sent a wave of revulsion around the world. Amid a blaze of publicity over her plight, Malala was flown to England for advanced medical care and for her own protection.

There was no indication Wednesday of whether or when she would return to Pakistan, although Rosser said it would likely be a year or 18 months before she made a complete recovery.

"Anybody who's required a lengthy intensive care stay or undergone significant neurological injuries, studies tell us people don't report feeling as well as they used to for 15 to 18 months," he said.

Rosser went on to give a detailed briefing of what Malala could expect from the surgery, planned for some time within the next two weeks. He said doctors also have to remove a piece of Malala's skull that they had surgically inserted into her abdomen a common procedure intended to keep the skull fragment from getting infected. Eventually, however, surgeons opted for a titanium plate to cover the hole.

A cochlear implant is also being implanted and will be turned on in about a month's time. Rosser said it should eventually restore her full hearing.

Asked whether Malala showed any signs of brain damage such as memory loss or hormonal changes Rosser said doctors had seen none.

Barring any complications, he said the skull reconstruction should be Malala's final surgery.

"She's certainly pleased with the thought that this will be the end of it," Rosser said.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nudists in famously tolerant San Francisco lost a bid on Tuesday to block a city ban on nakedness in public places, when a federal judge threw out a legal challenge that argued public nudity was akin to political expression.

San Francisco city leaders last month approved the ban on baring it all in streets, public plazas and the transit system to curtail public nudity, which some residents and business owners complained had gotten out of control.

The efforts to clamp down have caused a flap in the city, where men in particular are known to parade naked through the streets of the predominantly gay Castro District.

Some residents say nudists, and specifically a group known as the Naked Guys, have gone too far with their constant presence at a square in the Castro District. But nudists claim they have a right go naked in public and say politicians in San Francisco, which has often celebrated the bizarre and unconventional, should leave them alone.

Four nudist activists sued in November, even before the measure barring public nudity was passed by a slim majority of the Board of Supervisors, saying it would violate their constitutional right to free expression.

However, U.S. District Judge Edward Chen concluded that "nudity in and of itself is not inherently expressive," and denied the nudists' request for an injunction blocking the measure, which is due to go into effect on Friday.

Violators face fines of up to $100 for a first offense and $200 for a second. A third violation can bring a year in jail and a $500 penalty.

"Unlike the burning of a flag, burning of a draft card, or wearing a black armband in protest against the war, public nudity in and of itself is not commonly associated with expression of a particular message," Chen wrote in his decision.

He also noted that the law allows nudity on beaches and during certain events that require city permits, such as the gay pride parade.

The attorney for the nudists, Christina DiEdoardo, said they were still determining their next step. But she said nudists could mount a renewed challenge once the ordinance goes into effect if they are arrested while protesting the law, since they could then explicitly link their nudity to political expression.

"The judge seemed to issue an open invitation to file an amended complaint," she said.

A demonstration is scheduled for Friday outside San Franciso' City Hall.

(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Christopher Wilson)

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LOS ANGELES (AP) Roseanne Barr is dropping into NBC's "The Office."

The network said Barr will guest star as a talent agent named Carla Fern in scenes set to tape Wednesday. The agent agrees to help office manager Andy Barnard realize his show business dream. Series regular Ed Helms plays Andy.

Barr is taking a break from her stand-up comedy act in Las Vegas for "The Office" visit. The workplace comedy is in its final season, and producer Greg Daniels has promised a memorable end after nine years.

"The Office," adapted from the British series of the same name, ranks among NBC's most popular shows. Barr knows something about bringing a long-running hit to an end: Her sitcom "Roseanne" aired from 1988 to 1997.

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http://www.nbc.com/the-office/

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NEW YORK (AP) You want resolution on the "30 Rock" finale?

You're gonna get it. Sort of. At least, the sort befitting "30 Rock," with its loopy storytelling mixed with joy in spoofing the culture of TV.

Closure, if that's what it is, comes in a two-minute postscript on this hour episode (airing Thursday at 8 p.m. EST on NBC). But maybe you should just stop reading right now, you "30 Rock" purists who don't want to know what happens or might seem to happen, however wacked-out and ironic it may be.

Which, among other things, includes this sly touch: a reference to the snowglobe revelation with which the medical drama "St. Elsewhere" famously concluded a quarter-century ago.

But there's more. Just before the final fade-out, NBC President Kenneth the former Page (Jack McBrayer) is pitched a new comedy series taking place right there at network headquarters, 30 Rock.

Hmmm. This is no ending. It's a Mobius strip.

The comic coda suggests where many of the characters might be a year from now. But that's not the point of the finale, which mostly wants to have fun. And does.

This last yahoo of "30 Rock" after seven brilliant seasons takes delight in tracking the unraveling of its characters as the show-within-the-show, "TGS," comes to an end with its own final broadcast. After that, of course, its producer, Liz Lemon (Tina Fey), its stars, Jenna Moroney and Tracy Jordan (Jane Krakowski and Tracy Morgan) and other members of the "TGS" staff will have to leave the cozy, kooky nest of 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The prospect of doing that terrifies them all.

Meanwhile, Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin), the newly minted CEO of NBC parent Kabletown, is battling his own existential crisis.

He has gotten the top job he wanted all his life. And as the ultimate Republican capitalist, he has even scored a lash-out from a treasured enemy, House Republican Leader Nancy Pelosi.

"Jack Donaghy is an economic war criminal," Pelosi is seen declaring on a cable news network. "If the Democratic Party controls Congress, I will see to it that he is punished in the worst way possible: by having to come down here and listen to us."

Even with total victory under his belt, Jack still feels unfulfilled. What else can he do? He resigns from the company and begins a journey to discover what might truly make him happy.

Jack's despair includes the fear that he's lost Liz as a friend.

"I don't have that many people in my life," he sobs to Jenna. "I spend Christmas alone in the Hamptons drinking Scotch and throwing firecrackers at Billy Joel's dog."

Out of a job, Liz is miserable as a stay-at-home mom of adopted twins. Conversely, her husband, Criss (played by guest star James Marsden), hates steady employment.

"It's OK to want to work," he consoles Liz. "One of us has to. We just got it backwards: You're the dad."

"I do like ignoring your questions while I try to watch TV," Liz agrees.

(Interestingly, a year hence Liz is seen back at work producing a dumb sitcom with her children in tow. Where is hubby Criss?)

During the finale, "30 Rock" doesn't hesitate to snack on its own past.

Liz and Tracy have an awkward heart-to-heart at the strip club where Tracy lured her on their first encounter on the series' premiere.

And a high point of the episode comes when Jenna revisits the project she starred in years ago, a film with the lips-scrunching title "Rural Juror" (which inevitably comes out sounding something like "ruhr juhr").

On the farewell "TGS," Jenna performs the theme from her new musical adaptation of "Rural Juror," with, inevitably, almost nothing she sings recognizable as English.

It serves as a reminder: "30 Rock" wasn't just a brilliant comedy series. It also forged a comic language of its own.

____

Online:

http://www.nbc.com

___

Frazier Moore is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. He can be reached at fmoore(at)ap.org and at http://www.twitter.com/tvfrazier

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rapper Tip "T.I." Harris has seen and done it all - three Grammy Awards, a novel, time in jail, a fashion line, TV reality show, businessman and several movies.

Now the Atlanta-based singer is dipping into comedy, appearing in the film "Identity Thief" as an armed enforcer on the trail of a character played by Melissa McCarthy who is on the run from many of those she's swindled.

T.I., 32, sat down with Reuters ahead of the movie's February 8 release to talk about the film, what's left on his to-do list, and his personal views on gun control.

Q: How did you wind up in a comedic film?

A: "I met with (director) Seth (Gordon) and learned he was the director of one of my favorite comedies, 'Horrible Bosses.' I asked him how would this movie compare to 'Horrible Bosses' and he said it's going to be better. I said, 'I'm in.'"

Q: Were you OK taking a supporting role rather than a lead?

A: "I actually enjoyed the fact that all of the heavy lifting was not on my shoulders. It was Jason (Bateman) and Melissa's show, so the stage was set for me to not screw it up, you know what I mean?"

Q: Last year you appeared on television's "Hawaii Five-O" and "Boss." Do you have role models of hip-hop stars who have successfully crossed over to acting?

A: "Will Smith and Ice Cube. Looking at the roles Cube has been able to acquire, he created those opportunities for himself. So I think I could take that approach."

Q: Is there a certain perception of you out there that might hinder you from being taken seriously as an actor?

A: "I think people might wonder whether or not T.I. can be anything other than T.I., so it's constantly having to reassure people that I'm able to do what I already know I can do."

Q: For some, T.I. is a successful recording artist and for others he's someone who had several stints in jail on drugs and weapons charges. Can you confidently say that the past is the past?

A: "I'm not gonna say anything. It's day by day, you know what I'm saying? I'm saying today this is how I am, this is where I am. And tomorrow hopefully will be better than today."

Q: In 2011 after your last prison term, you showed a softer side by starring in the VH1 reality series "T.I. and Tiny: The Family Hustle," with your wife and six kids. Was that an attempt to right your past transgressions?

A: "Nah. I think it's a showcasing of who I am today. I don't think that it any way diminishes the mistakes of yesterday. It just makes a correction if people assume that the mistakes of yesterday are ever-present today. It gives people a stage of truth and knowledge to judge from. So if you must judge, at least you can judge from fact."

Q: You've just released your eighth album, "Trouble Man II: He Who Wears the Crown." You also have a your own urban fashion line, A.K.O.O. What else do you need to check off your to-do list?

A: "Just to remain relevant and meaningful to the cool young consumer of today. The cool kids are out there being admired by others in their peer group, so you want to find ways to continue to put yourself on their minds."

Q: How do you do that?

A: "(Social media) is a big aspect for those kids. ... So with Instagram, if you take pictures it has to be a picture worthy of showing. If you say something on Twitter, it has to be something that's worthy of listening to."

Q: With gun control being a hot-button topic today, and with your own experiences with firearms, what are your thoughts on gun ownership?

A: "I can't possess a firearm (due to previous convictions), so whether they make them illegal or not is gonna be the same thing for me. But I see a need for them. I've been in circumstances where I've had them every day and nothing happened. I've been in circumstances where I didn't have them, and I needed them. In certain areas of society, having a firearm is just as common as having bottled water."

Q: In what way?

A: "If you're a shopkeeper, a barbershop owner, a convenience store owner and you handle cash in and out of this area, if everyone knows that you don't have a firearm, then you are basically prey. In these areas, bullets are just as common as sticks of gum, you know what I'm saying? So I think I speak for those people."

(Reporting by Zorianna Kit; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Will Dunham)

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LONDON (Reuters) - Israeli forces attacked a convoy on the Syrian-Lebanese border overnight, a Western diplomat and regional security sources said on Wednesday, as concern has grown in the Jewish state over the fate of Syrian chemical and advanced conventional weapons.

The sources, four in total, all of whom declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue, had no further information about what the vehicles may have been carrying, what forces were used or where precisely the attack happened.

In the run-up to the raid, Israeli officials have been warning very publicly of a threat of high-tech anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles reaching Israel's enemies in the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah from Syria. They have also echoed U.S. concerns about Syria's presumed chemical weapons arsenal.

The Lebanese army reported a heavy presence of Israeli jets over its territory throughout the night.

"There was definitely a hit in the border area," one security source said. A Western diplomat in the region who asked about the strike said "something has happened", without elaborating.

An activist in Syria who works with a network of opposition groups around the country said that she had heard of a strike in southern Syria from her colleagues but could not confirm it. A strike just inside Lebanon would appear a less diplomatically explosive option for Israel to avoid provoking Syrian ally Iran.

Israeli Vice Premier Silvan Shalom said on Sunday that any sign that Syria's grip on its chemical weapons was slipping, as President Bashar al-Assad fights rebels trying to overthrow him, could trigger Israeli intervention.

Israeli sources said on Tuesday that Syria's advanced conventional weapons would represent as much of a threat to Israel as its chemical arms should they fall into the hands of Islamist rebels or Hezbollah guerrillas based in Lebanon.

Interviewed on Wednesday, Shalom would not be drawn on whether Israel was operating on its northern front, instead describing the country as part of an international coalition seeking to stop spillover from Syria's two-year-old insurgency.

"The entire world has said more than once that it takes developments in Syria very seriously, developments which can be in negative directions," he told Israel Radio, recalling that President Barack Obama has warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of U.S. action if his forces use chemical weapons.

"The world, led by President Obama who has said this more than once, is taking all possibilities into account," Shalom added. "And of course any development which is a development in a negative direction would be something that needs stopping and prevention."

BORDER STRIKE

Whether the strike took place within Syrian territory, or over the border in Lebanon, could affect any escalation from the incident. Iran, Israel's arch-foe and one of Damascus's few allies, said on Saturday it would consider any attack on Syria as an attack on itself. During and since Israel's 2006 war with Hezbollah, there have been unconfirmed reports of Israeli strikes on convoys just after they entered Lebanon from Syria.

Israel has long made clear it claims a right to act preemptively against enemy capabilities. Alluding to this, air force chief Major-General Amir Eshel on Tuesday said his corps was involved in a covert and far-flung "campaign between wars".

"This campaign is 24/7, 365 days a year," Eshel told an international conference. "We are taking action to reduce the immediate threats, to create better conditions in which we will be able to win the wars, when they happen."

He did not elaborate on any operations, but did single out the threat Israel saw from Syria's arsenal, calling it "huge, part of it state-of-the-art, part of it unconventional".

Israel fought an inconclusive war in Lebanon with Iranian-backed Hezbollah in 2006. Its aircraft then faced little threat, though its navy was taken aback when a cruise missile hit a ship off the Lebanese coast. Israeli tanks suffered losses to rockets and commanders are concerned Hezbollah may get better weaponry.

Israeli jets regularly enter Lebanese airspace, but its forces have been more discreet about Syrian incursions.

Israel's bombing of a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007, though revealed by then U.S. President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, is still not formally acknowledged by the Israelis.

According to Bush, then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert sought to keep the matter quiet so as to reduce the risk of Assad feeling public pressure to retaliate. Syria and Israel are technically at war but have not exchanged fire in a significant way in decades.

A U.N. force sits on the line, north of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, where a ceasefire ended their last war in 1973.

Israeli media reported this week that the country's national security adviser, Yaakov Amidror, was sent to Russia and its military intelligence chief Major-General Aviv Kochavi to the United States for consultations.

Shashank Joshi of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London said that there are indications that Hezbollah is training near chemical weapons sites in Syria, with which the Shi'ite Lebanese militia has historically had a strong alliance.

"We also know that (Syria's) use of tactical ballistic missiles has been escalating - presumably as air power becomes harder to use in contested areas, and rebels seize larger targets like bases that are amenable to missile attack," he said.

Worries about Syria and Hezbollah have sent Israelis lining up for government-issued gas masks. According to the Israel post office, which is handling distribution of the kits, demand roughly trebled this week.

"It looks like every kind of discourse on this or that security matter contributes to public vigilance," its deputy director Haim Azaki told Israel's Army Radio. "We have really seen a very significant jump in demand."

(Reporting by Myra MacDonald; Writing by Oliver Holmes; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

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BEIJING (Reuters) - China's foulest fortnight for air pollution in memory has rekindled a tongue-in-cheek campaign by a multimillionaire with a streak of showmanship who is selling canned fresh air.

Chen Guangbiao, who made his fortune in the recycling business and is a high-profile philanthropist, on Wednesday handed out soda pop-sized cans of air, purportedly from far-flung, pristine regions of China such as Xinjiang in the northwest to Taiwan, the southeast coast.

"I want to tell mayors, county chiefs and heads of big companies: don't just chase GDP growth, don't chase the biggest profits at the expense of our children and grandchildren and at the cost of sacrificing our ecological environment", Chen said.

China's air quality is closely watched as it fluctuates dramatically from day to day but in recent weeks has registered far into the unhealthy zone.

Air pollution is measured in terms of PM2.5, or particulate matter 2.5 micrometers in diameter, which are absorbed by the lungs and can cause heart and lung disease. The World Health Organisation recommends a daily PM2.5 level of 20 and says that levels greater than 300 are serious health hazards.

Beijing's air quality frequently surges past a level of 500, and on January 12 soared to 755, the highest in memory.

"I go outside, walk for about 20 minutes, and my throat hurts and I feel dizzy", Chen told Reuters in an interview on a busy Beijing sidewalk.

He handed out green and orange cans of "Fresh Air", with a caricature of himself on them saying, "Chen Guangbiao is a good man".

"Be a good person, have a good heart, do good things," reads a message along the bottom of each can.

The 44-year-old entrepreneur, whose wealth is estimated at $740 million according to last year's Hurun Rich List of China's super-wealthy, is an ebullient and tireless self-promoter.

He is something of a celebrity in China, with more than 4 million followers on Sina Weibo, China's most popular Twitter-like microblogging platform.

He concedes that his canned-air effort is tongue in cheek, but says it's a way to awaken people to the importance of environmental protection. His campaign is attracting bemusement but also plaudits from the media and from people desperate to escape the smog.

"Beijing's air really needs to improve, so we need a good man like him to appear," said a 21-year-old resident surnamed Hu. "It reminds people to use less fuel and do what they can for Beijing's air".

The cans of air were free on Wednesday, but usually sell for 5 yuan (80 cents) with proceeds going to poor regions of China, and places of historic revolutionary importance.

Sales, which had been moderate, took off after the recent streak of bad air days, with 8 million cans sold in the last 10 days, Chen said.

(Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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TOKYO (AP) -- Japanese video game maker Nintendo Co. returned to the black for the first nine months of its business year and more than doubled its profit forecast for the full year, getting a perk from a weaker yen, despite pessimism about sales prospects.

April-December profit for the Kyoto-based maker of Super Mario and Pokemon games totaled 14.55 billion yen ($160 million), bouncing back from the 48.35 billion yen loss reported a year earlier, it said Wednesday. Nine-month sales inched up 2.4 percent to 543 billion yen ($6 billion).

Nintendo raised its profit forecast for the business year through March 2013 to 14 billion yen ($154 million) from 6 billion yen ($66 million). The dollar has strengthened about 14 percent against the yen in the past three months on expectations a new government would relax monetary policy to boost Japan's moribund economy.

But Nintendo, which didn't break down quarterly results, isn't upbeat about its sales prospects and lowered its full year sales forecast to 670 billion yen ($7.4 billion) from 810 billion yen ($8.9 billion).

Game machines have taken a beating from the proliferation of smartphones and tablets that also offer games and other entertainment, competing for people's leisure time. Some analysts say the global market for game machines is saturated with offerings from Nintendo, Microsoft Corp., Sony Corp. and others.

Nintendo spokesman Makoto Wakae said sales had gone relatively well during the key holiday shopping season late last year, but that was quickly running out of momentum. The company expects to post an operating loss for the year ending March 2013, the second straight year of operating losses, he said.

The company forecasts it will sell 4 million Wii U consoles for the fiscal year, 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.

Nintendo's success was rooted in its appeal to so-called casual gamers, but they may be the kind of people for whom smartphones and iPads are proving attractive alternatives.

What's coming as a godsend for Nintendo is the weakening yen, against both the dollar and the euro, as that helps raise the value of its overseas earnings. Currency gains for the period totaled 22 billion yen ($242 million), according to Nintendo.

Nintendo has a lot riding on the Wii U, which has a touch-screen tablet controller called GamePad and a TV-watching feature called TVii. Nintendo said it sold 3 million Wii U machines so far around the world.

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. It has sold nearly 30 million 3DS machines so far.

___

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

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TOKYO (Reuters) - Nintendo Co Ltd, the world's leading gaming company by machines sold, said it will post an operating loss for a second straight year as the sales of its Wii U, successor to the 100-million selling Wii, faltered.

The company caught investors off guard by predicting a loss of $220 million in the year to March 31, reversing a profit forecast for the same amount, putting its new guidance well short of a consensus estimate of 12.1 billion yen ($133.48 million) profit from 19 analysts.

The grim outlook came even as a weaker yen provides a boost for a company that sells almost three quarters of its products outside Japan.

"It was a somewhat negative surprise," said Yasuo Sakuma, portfolio manager at Bayview Asset Management.

Nintendo, which began by making playing cards in the late 19th century, is counting on the Wii U to revive its fortunes as sales of the six year-old Wii slacken.

The latest offering from the creator of Super Mario faces competition from Apple Inc and other makers of mobile phones and tablet PCs that are attracting gamers with cheap or free games.

"The sales of Wii U were smooth at the beginning but since the turn of the year they have been losing momentum," Nintendo President Satoru Iwata told reporters in Osaka after revealing the loss forecast. He blamed the lacklustre performance on a dearth of games titles to woo players back.

"Due to delays in software development, we had to postpone sales of software products we had planned to (release) early this year, which is interrupting our sales," he said.

SOFTWARE SLUMP

Nintendo lowered its sales forecast for the Wii U, launched in the U.S. in November, to 4 million consoles by the end of March from a pre-launch estimate of 5.5 million, and cut the sales outlook for its handheld 3DS by 2.5 million machines to 15 million.

In November it launched the Wii U, its first console in 16 years to come with a dedicated Super Mario game title.

The performance of the Wii U, which features a "Gamepad" controller that functions like a tablet, and a social gaming network dubbed "Miiverse", will be closely watched by XBox maker Microsoft Corp and Playstation maker Sony Corp as both mull plans for updated versions of their consoles, say analysts.

As Nintendo's hardware business suffers, software sales are also dragging. The company slashed the annual sales forecast of Wii U software by 33 percent to 24 million units and that of 3DS software by 29 percent to 70 million units.

"We have been prepared to see weak sales forecast for Wii U as its sales performances in various regions have been widely reported. But it was negative to see a lower forecast for 3DS software as it is one of the company's main sales drivers," said Sakuma at Bayview Asset Management.

Nintendo has so far resisted offering Super Mario and its other iconic games on tablets, smartphones or other platforms.

Iwata indicated that Nintendo will stick with its in-house strategy. The company, he said, aims to return to operating profit of more than 100 billion yen in the next business year with a splurge of new software titles.

Before the earnings announcement, Nintendo's shares fell 2.1 percent to 9,350 yen, edging back toward the decade low of 8,500 yen touched early this month.

($1 = 90.6500 Japanese yen)

(Reporting by Tim Kelly and Hideyuki Sano; Additional reporting by Yoshiyuki Osada and Ayai Tomisawa; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)

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