Danny Puff

LOS ANGELES (AP) Prosecutors say a 12-year-old boy has admitted making a prank 911 call that drew police to Ashton Kutcher's home.

The Los Angeles District Attorney's Office says the boy admitted responsibility for making a false bomb threat and computer intrusion. He will be sentenced at a later date.

Prosecutors say the boy is also accused of making false 911 calls involving Justin Bieber's house and a bank. Those charges will likely be dismissed, but the district attorney's office says the allegations will be considered when the boy is sentenced.

The boy's identity has not been released.

His calls were among several targeting celebrities in the Los Angeles area in recent months in a practice known as "swatting." The pranks are intended to draw large police responses, including SWAT teams.

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A 12-year-old boy admitted in court on Monday that he falsely reported to police last year that criminals with guns and explosives had invaded the home of actor Ashton Kutcher and shot people, the Los Angeles County District Attorney said.

The boy, whose name was withheld because he is a minor, prompted police to dispatch emergency responders to the "Two and a Half Men" star's Hollywood home in October.

Such prank emergency calls are known as "swatting" because SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) officers are often sent to such purported crime scenes. The child was charged with making a false bomb threat and computer intrusion because he placed the call from a computer.

The boy has also been charged with a misdemeanor count of making a false emergency report when he allegedly placed a hoax call about gunshots being fired on the Los Angeles-area property of teen pop star Justin Bieber.

The boy, who will turn 13 in April, faces additional felony charges of making a false bomb threat and computer intrusion after allegedly saying there was a bomb at a Wells Fargo bank branch in Los Angeles.

Those charges are expected to be dismissed when the boy is sentenced, the district attorney said.

All of the prank calls were placed in October.

The boy's sentence is at the discretion of the court, which could decide on at-home probation or placement in a group home among other punishments, district attorney spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons.

He has been released to the custody of his parents and the case has been transferred to his home county, which the court declined to name publicly.

In California juvenile cases, defendants have the option to either admit or deny charges brought against them by petition.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Piya Sinha-Roy and Cynthia Osterman)

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AUSTIN, Texas (AP) In the frenzy of South by Southwest, even standouts like The Flaming Lips feel the need to stand out.

Now consider that problem while surveying the 2,200 mostly unknown bands packing Austin starting Tuesday for the marquee week of the trendy festival that blends the famous and nameless, headlined this year by Green Day, Dave Grohl, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Natalie Maines of The Dixie Chicks and Snoop Lion (perhaps still better known as Snoop Dogg).

Squeezing into the intimate showcases for those big acts will be all but impossible. The Flaming Lips will take all comers at a free outdoor concert, yet the psychedelic rockers known for theatrical live spectacles are still pulling out the stops for attention, performing their yet-unreleased album "The Terror" in its entirety for the first time.

Call it a lesson for all the lesser-knowns at SXSW: make your set memorable, or leave possibly forgotten.

"You have to do something beyond your normal show and normal existence," said The Flaming Lips multi-instrumentalist Steven Drozd, who believes SXSW can still make a band that shows up struggling to make a living. "If you're playing SXSW and playing in the right spot, this might be the time a manager of another band might see you and you get your shot. Otherwise, you may not get your shot at all."

That SXSW has skewed too commercial at the expense of up-and-comers is a gripe that sometimes feels as old as The Flaming Lips, whose dark new album set for release in April will be their 13th in their 30-year history. What ostensibly began in 1987 as an insider gathering for unsigned bands to catch the eye of a record executive or musical tastemaker has mushroomed into a weeklong party with a festival feel and A-list acts.

Other notables at the SXSW this year include Vampire Weekend, Kendrick Lamar, Iggy and the Stooges, the Black Lips, Tegan and Sara, Haim and Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore's new side project, Chelsea Light Moving. Then there are the stars who will inevitably drop in for unannounced shows, such as when 50 Cent and Eminem collaborated for a set that was also streamed on YouTube.

James Minor, the general manager of the music arm of SXSW, said the upside of SXSW for chart-topping artists is a fresh dose of relevance. But he describes the festival that runs through Saturday as a still-valuable showcase for emerging bands to get exposure and take crash courses on the business side of an evolving industry where it's getting harder for artists to make a buck.

"I feel people are turning around a little bit, as maybe in the past they see SXSW as party time," Minor said. "But I feel like there's a general sense that artists that are succeeding are more aware of the industry."

Among those out for awareness this week are The Rubens, an Austrialian rock band who has yet to release an album in the U.S., let alone play here before. Frontman Sam Margin is grateful his band has it better than most they're already signed to a major label in Warner Bros. but is expecting a competitive atmosphere that raises the stakes to standout.

That doesn't mean any gimmicks for The Rubens they're just hoping their performances finds buzz in a week that's so packed with bands that even Margin confesses to trouble navigating it.

"It's been really hard to find anything. I've been Googling it and there is so much going on," Margin said.

Of course, the big acts don't show up simply to upstage the rest of the lineup. Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong, whose substance abuse problems last year forced the band to postpone the start of a 2013 arena tour, debuts the documentary "Broadway Idiot" that jumps from concerts to the punk band's Broadway musical.

Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips is similarly premiering his own film called "A Year in the Life of Wayne's Phone" that promises to be every bit as curiously weird as it sounds. Maines, who has been seldom heard from since the Dixie Chicks began a hiatus in 2008, returns to the stage in her native Texas to promote her solo debut "Mother" due out in May.

Drozd said he first performed at SXSW in 1989 with another upstart band before joining The Flaming Lips. He hopes the potential remains the same for others a quarter-century later.

"We thought we might get out next big break," Drozd said. "We played to five or six people. Nothing came of it, but it felt like anything could help."

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Follow Paul J. Weber on Twitter: www.twitter.com/pauljweber

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By Mike Collett-White

LONDON (Reuters) - With a range spanning the cardigan-clad sweetheart in the hit musical "Grease" and the leotarded gym instructor in the raunchy single "Physical", no one could accuse Olivia Newton-John of playing it safe in 40 years of singing country, pop and rock.

The Australian, who was born in England and is touring there for the first time in 35 years, admits to being terrified at some of the choices she made in a career boasting four Grammy awards and a lead role in the biggest musical movie hit in U.S. history.

"I like a challenge," Newton-John, 64, told Reuters in an interview before starting a six-concert tour that ends on March 17 in Manchester.

"I was always afraid of these changes but I did them anyway, kind of 'face your fears' ... because I felt you also had to challenge yourself a little bit. But I was terrified."

The 1981 release of "Physical", a song from the album of the same name, was banned by some radio stations in the United States banned for raunchy lyrics such as "There's nothing left to talk about/Unless it's horizontally."

"I remember calling (manager) Roger Davies right after I'd finished it ... and going 'Oh, I'm not sure we should put this out, it's a little too risqu '. He said: 'It's too late, love, it's gone to radio'."

Adding to the controversy was the video, in which Newton-John played a gym instructor in a tight leotard surrounded by oiled body-builders portrayed as gay in a twist ending.

FROM NICE TO NAUGHTY

"I look back now and it's hilarious, because that was so naughty in its time," she recalled. "That was another challenge that worked, thank goodness. It was either going to be a big success or nothing. There was no in-between with that song.

"It was banned in Utah and I did my television special for the Physical Tour in Utah. I remember I was probably so terrified I got sick right before the shoot."

In fact, "Physical" proved to be the pinnacle of Newton-John's solo career, topping the U.S. pop charts and becoming one of the best-selling singles of the decade.

By then, Newton-John had already left her comfort zone more than once. She recalled pursuing a career as a performer despite resistance from her parents, who wanted her to finish school.

She comes from an academic background - her grandfather was Max Born, a German-British Nobel Prize-winning quantum physicist.

"My grandfather apparently used to play music with Einstein, they used to play chamber music together, so it (the musical gene) goes back," Newton-John said.

She left Australia for Britain in the 60s to make it as a pop star. By the early 70s, she had featured in the charts and on television before representing the United Kingdom at the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, finishing fourth behind winners ABBA.

Then came a move to the United States, where Newton-John broke into the country music scene despite being considered an outsider. Her hit "Let Me Be There" won her a country vocal Grammy.

SANDY IN SPANDEX

The next gamble came with "Grease", the hit 1978 film adaptation of the Broadway musical that would turn her into a household name.

"Grease itself was a bold enough move - playing the second character in Grease, and for that to be so successful, I mean, who knew?"

Her character's transformation from clean-cut "Sandy 1" to spandex-clad "Sandy 2", out to snare John Travolta's Danny, was one that she took into real life, ditching the safety of soft pop and country for an edgier image and sound.

The name of her next album? "Totally Hot".

"The raunchy kind of image that Sandy 2 had, it gave an opportunity to change my direction a little bit and do something a little more fun," she said.

"I did country, and then it was pop, and then 'Grease' kind of went into rock and so I got to change a little bit. Everyone does it now, but then it probably wasn't so common."

Newton-John, now based on the west coast of the United States along with her family including daughter Chloe, said she would continue to record new music but may cut back on touring.

"I have so many ... other things I'm passionate about and involved in and I love singing and I love recording, but touring takes a toll and you're away from home a lot," she explained.

Newton-John, who survived breast cancer in 1992, has set up a cancer centre in Australia and has campaigned on issues including deforestation, dolphin culling and fracking.

Why does she take on so many issues outside music?

"I think it's really for my mum," she said. "My mum was always writing letters to the council about problems, and so I think I owe that to her."

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

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By Sui-Lee Wee

BEIJING (Reuters) - Dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei announced plans on Monday to release a heavy-metal album that he said would "express his opinion" just as he does with his art.

The burly and bearded Ai said 81 days in secretive detention in 2011, which sparked an international outcry, triggered his foray into music.

"When I was arrested, they (his guards) would often ask me to sing songs, but because I wasn't familiar with music, I was embarrassed," Ai, 55, said in a telephone interview. "It helped me pass the time very easily.

"All I could sing was Chinese People's Liberation Army songs," Ai said. "After that I thought: when I'm out, I'd like to do something related to music."

A court in September upheld a $2.4 million (1.6 million pounds) fine against Ai for tax evasion, paving the way for jail if he does not pay. Ai maintains the charges were trumped up in retaliation for his criticism of the government.

The world-renowned artist has repeatedly criticised the government for flouting the rule of law and the rights of citizens.

Ai's debut album - "Divina Commedia", after the poem by Italian poet Dante - is a reference to the "Ai God" nickname in Chinese that his supporters call him by. "God" in Chinese is "Shen", while "Divina Commedia" in Chinese is "Shen qu".

Two songs are about blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng, whose escape from house arrest last April and subsequent refuge in the U.S. Embassy embarrassed China and led to a diplomatic tussle.

One song on the album is called "Hotel Americana", a dig at the U.S. Embassy for sheltering Chen. Another is "Climbing over the Wall" - a reference to Chen's scaling of the walls in his village to escape, and Chinese Internet users circumventing the "Great Firewall of China", a colloquial term for China's blocking of websites.

Ai said he was not worried about government persecution for his album, which will be out in about three weeks. But he is gloomy about the prospects of it being sold in China, saying he will distribute the album online "because music is also subject to review" in China.

Ai said his time in the recording studio did not mean that he was moving away from art.

"I think it's all the same," he said. "My art is about expressing opinion and communication."

Ai said he was working on a second album, with pop and rock influences, that he hoped people would sing along with.

"You know, I'm a person that's furthest away from music, I never sing," Ai said. "But you'll be surprised. You'll like it."

(Reporting by Sui-Lee Wee; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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By Euan Rocha

TORONTO (Reuters) - BlackBerry shares rose 12 percent on Monday, fueled by takeover speculation and news that AT&T Inc will start selling the new BlackBerry Z10 touchscreen smartphone in the United States on March 22.

The CEO of China's Lenovo Group Ltd told a French newspaper on Monday that the personal computer maker might consider an acquisition of Canada's BlackBerry at some point in the future.

"External growth remains a question of opportunities," Yang Yuanqing told Les chos in an interview.

"As for BlackBerry, the file could eventually make sense, but I must first analyze the market and understand the exact weight of this company," he said in response to a question about whether the company would make a move on BlackBerry.

BlackBerry, a one-time smartphone pioneer, has bled market share to the likes of Apple Inc's iPhone, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's Galaxy line and other devices powered by Google Inc's market-leading Android operating system.

In a make-or-break move to regain market share and return to profit, BlackBerry introduced the new smartphone to much fanfare in January, and said it was abandoning its old name, Research In Motion, and renaming itself BlackBerry.

A spokesman for Lenovo in Canada downplayed the CEO's comment, saying, "in no way was this an indication of activity or strategic direction."

Another Lenovo executive had made a similar comment when asked about BlackBerry in January. That remark also sparked a rally in BlackBerry shares, but Lenovo said at the time that the executive was only speaking broadly about M&A strategy.

BlackBerry shares were up 11.7 percent at $14.59 on the Nasdaq on Monday afternoon, while the Toronto-listed shares were up 11.7 percent at C$14.99.

AT&T LAUNCH

BlackBerry is hoping the new devices, already on sale in Canada, Britain and more than 20 other countries, will help it win back market share in the United States, which was once a stronghold for the smartphone industry pioneer.

The U.S. launch of the new devices has been delayed due to a longer carrier-testing phase in the country. AT&T said pre-sales of the devices will begin on Tuesday.

BlackBerry says sales of its new smartphone have been outpacing its expectations so far, but investors are keen to see how it fares in the United States.

As expected, AT&T said it would sell the devices for $199.99 with a two-year contract. T-Mobile USA said on Friday it planned to start selling the BlackBerry Z10 to its business customers in the United States on Monday.

Verizon Inc , the biggest U.S. wireless carrier, has yet to say when it will start selling the Z10. The Z10 and the soon-to-be-launched Q10, which will come with BlackBerry's traditional physical keyboard, are powered by the new BlackBerry 10, or BB10 operating system.

"We believe the Street is pricing in such a weak fiscal 2014 that BB10 does not need to be an outstanding success to surprise," Scotiabank analyst Gus Papageorgiou said in a note to clients on Monday.

Papageorgiou, who has a "sector outperform" rating on the stock, said he expects the company sold about 1 million BlackBerry 10 devices in the quarter ended March 2.

"Gross margins should begin to move higher as more Z10s enter the mix," he said. "Next quarter will be the true test as BB10 launches in the U.S."

($1 = 1.027 Canadian)

(Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, Peter Galloway and Matthew Lewis)

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By Estelle Shirbon

LONDON (Reuters) - Disgraced energy minister Chris Huhne was jailed for eight months on Monday for lying to police about a speeding offence in 2003, in the final chapter of a bizarre tale of adultery and revenge that has gripped the British public.

Huhne's ex-wife Vicky Pryce, a prominent economist, was also jailed for eight months for her role in the deception.

Prior to the scandal, Huhne had been seen as a potential future leader of the Liberal Democrats, junior partners to the Conservatives in Britain's ruling coalition government.

When his car was caught by a speed camera, he and his wife falsely told police she had been driving, so that the minister could avoid a driving ban.

The incident remained a family secret for years but came back to haunt Huhne after he left Pryce for his mistress, Carina Trimingham, in 2010. Pryce told two newspapers about the 2003 deception in an act of revenge that landed both Huhne and herself in the dock.

"Any element of tragedy is entirely your own fault," judge Nigel Sweeney told the pair as he passed sentence on them.

"IMPLACABLE DESIRE FOR REVENGE"

"There is a controlling, manipulative and devious side to your nature," he told Pryce, saying she had been driven by "an implacable desire for revenge".

"Despite your high office, Mr Huhne, you tried to lie your way out of trouble by claiming you were innocent, by repeating that lie again and again," the judge told the disgraced politician.

"You have fallen from a great height."

The estranged pair sat side-by-side in the glass-walled dock during the lengthy sentencing hearing but did not make eye-contact. Trimingham sat in the public gallery in the courtroom packed with journalists.

Dressed in a dark suit and tie, Huhne, 58, stood grim-faced to hear his sentence. Wearing a black jacket, silver-grey roll-neck top and dangly earrings, Pryce, 60, appeared to be fighting back tears throughout the hearing.

The judge told the pair they would serve at least half of their sentences before being released on parole.

Huhne resigned as energy secretary in February 2012, when he and Pryce were both charged with perverting the course of justice. He spent the best part of a year fighting a costly legal battle, trying to get the charge against him thrown out.

That attempt failed when Judge Sweeney ruled at the end of January that he should face trial. Huhne initially pleaded not guilty, but a week later, on the morning the trial was due to start, he stunned Britain by changing his plea to guilty.

"BLOODBATH"

His lawyer, John Kelsey-Fry, told the court Huhne's 11th-hour guilty plea had taken courage and had avoided what would have been "a bloodbath" if Huhne and Pryce had stood trial together.

Instead, Pryce stood trial alone after pleading not guilty. She admitted taking Huhne's speeding penalty but put forward an archaic defense of "marital coercion", arguing that Huhne had bullied her into it.

A first jury failed to agree on a verdict on Pryce, but after a retrial a second jury convicted her on Thursday.

Pryce's trials revealed painful details of the breakdown of her 26-year marriage to Huhne.

He became a minister in May 2010, but within weeks a newspaper found out he was having an affair about which Pryce had been unaware.

The story was widely covered by the national press, with the added spice that Trimingham had previously been in a lesbian relationship.

Evidence shown at Pryce's trial revealed how, starting in November 2010, she spent six months plotting with journalists to try to get the story about the 2003 speeding deception into the papers in a way that would damage Huhne but not expose her.

"I definitely want to nail him," Pryce wrote to one journalist in a March 2011 email that was read out in court.

(Editing by Michael Holden and Andrew Roche)

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By Chris Michaud

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Actress Valerie Harper, star of the 1970s television comedy "Rhoda," says she is determined to "live each day's moments fully" despite a brain cancer diagnosis that doctors told her could bring death in a matter of days or in several years.

Harper, 73, who won four Emmy Awards for her signature sitcom role, said on NBC's "Today" show on Monday that the reality of her illness hit home "when I heard the word 'incurable.'"

"'Incurable' is a tough word, so is 'terminal,'" she said with a laugh. The interview, taped from her home in Los Angeles, marked Harper's first appearance on network television since she disclosed her cancer diagnosis in a People magazine cover story last Wednesday.

In that article, Harper said she learned in mid-January that she was suffering from leptomeningeal carcinomatosis -- cancer in the membrane of her brain -- and was given as little as three months to live.

In her televised interview with Savannah Guthrie of the "Today" show, Harper said her doctor told her she could live anywhere from a week, if for example she suffered a seizure, to a few months or even for several years, and that he had patients who had lived much longer than the prognosis.

Harper was a prime-time staple on U.S. television through most of the 1970s, first as the brassy but insecure neighbor Rhoda Morgenstern on the hit CBS sitcom "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." The character proved so popular that Harper was given her own spinoff series, "Rhoda," which ran for several more seasons on CBS.

"A lot of folks are calling (asking), 'Can I come by the house?' 'Are you in a wheelchair?', because they hear it as a death sentence, which it may be," Harper said on "Today." "But I'm not dying until I do. I promise I won't."

As to holding out hope against a seemingly grim fate, Harper, her voice hoarse due to a bout of laryngitis, said that beyond being hopeful, "I have an intention to live each day's moments, fully."

Harper recently completed a tour promoting her new autobiography "I, Rhoda" and starred on Broadway as Tallulah Bankhead in "Looped," for which she earned a Tony Award nomination.

Harper, who underwent surgery for lung cancer in 2009, said on "Today" that the disease she is currently battling is "very rare" and was "hard to detect because it was diffuse. It's all around. It's not in one lump."

She recounted feeling odd symptoms when she was working to take her "Looped" show on tour, noticing "this weird feeling in my jaw," adding, "I vomited for no reason and wasn't sick. And I thought, 'That's weird.'"

Despite the dire nature of her condition, Harper said she clings to hope.

"The thing I have is ... very rare and it's serious and it's incurable ... so far. So I'm holding on to the 'so far.'"

(Writing by Chris Michaud; Editing by Steve Gorman, Patricia Reaney, Bill Trott and David Gregorio)

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LONDON (Reuters) - Canadian singer Justin Bieber has canceled one of two planned concerts in Portugal this week, the venue in Lisbon said on its website on Monday.

A source close to the singer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the cancellation was not linked to Bieber's collapse on-stage in London last week, which forced the teen sensation to take a 20-minute break for oxygen and later to visit a hospital.

"Due to unforeseen circumstances, Justin Bieber was forced to cancel the second performance in Portugal, March 12," a statement said on the website of the Pavilhao Atlantico.

"The Canadian singer is eager to play for the Portuguese fans on March 11," it added. Ticket holders for the canceled gig were entitled to a refund if they claimed it within a month.

The Bieber source did not give a reason for the cancellation, but local media in Portugal reported that tickets sales for the March 12 gig, which was added to his itinerary in February, were lower than organizers had hoped.

Bieber described his visit to London as a "rough week".

As well as the collapse, the 19-year-old was caught on film in an expletive-filled altercation with a photographer, showed up nearly two hours late for a show leading to widespread anger and was labeled a "pop brat" by a leading tabloid.

Discovered on YouTube in 2008, Bieber has built an online following of tens of millions of fans and is one of the pop world's biggest stars. In February, he became the youngest artist to land five chart-topping albums in the key U.S. market.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White; Additional reporting by Andrei Khalip in Lisbon; Editing by Jon Hemming)

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NEW CITY, N.Y. (AP) Stephen Baldwin will avoid jail and will have up to five years to pay $350,000 in back taxes and penalties, his lawyer said Monday.

Attorney Russell Yankwitt said he and prosecutors tentatively agreed that Baldwin, youngest of the four acting Baldwin brothers, will admit in court this month that he repeatedly failed to file his New York state income tax returns.

Baldwin, who starred in 1995's "The Usual Suspects," is accused of skipping his 2008, 2009 and 2010 returns. When he was arrested in December, the district attorney said Baldwin could face up to four years in prison if convicted.

But at Monday's closed-door conference at the Rockland County Courthouse, "The district attorney's office and the judge made it very clear that Mr. Baldwin will not be going to prison," Yankwitt said. "If Mr. Baldwin can't work, he can't pay back his back taxes."

Baldwin, 46, of Upper Grandview, was not at the conference.

Prosecutor Anthony Dellicarri confirmed that a tentative agreement had been reached on a plea deal but would not detail the specifics. A message left with the district attorney's office was not immediately returned.

Yankwitt said that if Baldwin pays back the money within a year, the case will be discharged on the condition he stay out of trouble. If Baldwin doesn't meet the one-year deadline, he will be sentenced to probation and given five years to pay back the money.

The lawyer said the exact amount to be paid was still being negotiated but was "in the ballpark" of $350,000.

Yankwitt, asked how Baldwin would get the money, replied, "He's doing commercials, he's acting, he's out in the public." Baldwin has been heard on New York radio in recent days in a commercial for a teeth-whitening system.

"The economy is not what it was, and Mr. Baldwin is a faith-based actor, which makes it harder to get roles," said Yankwitt, describing Baldwin as a born-again Christian. "In the past, he did movies that portrayed violence and drugs. He no longer does those types of movies."

Baldwin's brother Alec was a star of TV's "30 Rock," and brothers William and Daniel also are actors. When Yankwitt was asked if they were helping Stephen, he said only, "Mr. Baldwin is thankful for the love and support of his family."

Yankwitt said Baldwin got in trouble because he "relied on others," including an accountant and a lawyer.

"He never intended to defraud the government," the attorney said. "The government understands that."

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