Carole King musical eyes Broadway stage



NEW YORK (AP) A musical based on the woman behind such pop standards as "It's Too Late," ''You've Got a Friend" and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" hopes to make it to Broadway.

Producers on Friday announced plans to take "Beautiful: The Carole King Musical" to the Great White Way by spring 2014. The story is written by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Douglas McGrath.

King composed dozens of 1960s hits with then-husband Gerry Goffin before emerging as a recording artist in her own right. Her 25 million-selling "Tapestry" launched the singer-songwriter era in 1971 and became the first real blockbuster album.

The musical will chart King's rise set to the music that made her an icon.

Many of her songs became known through others, like "Pleasant Valley Sunday" (the Monkees), "Crying in the Rain" (Everly Brothers), "Take Good Care of My Baby" (Bobby Vee) and "You've Got a Friend" (James Taylor).

King's pre-"Tapestry" hits also included "Up on the Roof" (Drifters), "Loco-Motion" (Little Eva), "Will You Love Me Tomorrow (Shirelles), "One Fine Day" (Chiffons) and "Chains" (Cookies, later covered by the Beatles).

Sign says 'For Sale,' but Newtons intend to stay



LAS VEGAS (AP) The sign may read "For Sale" outside the sprawling southeast Las Vegas estate that Wayne Newton dubbed "Casa de Shenandoah."

But Newton's wife, Kathleen McCrone Newton, said Friday that even if a bidder snatches up the property at auction May 31, the "Mr. Las Vegas" crooner and his family have no intention of moving out.

"We stay here until we choose to leave. We have that right," Kathleen Newton told The Associated Press. "Even if at some point the property gets sold, it gets sold with us here."

She said a lease with a partnership that purchased the nearly 40-acre property for $19.5 million in June 2010 will let the couple and their 10-year-old daughter stay in the gold-trimmed opulent main house.

The mansion, featuring 17th century antiques and keepsakes from performers like Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and Bobby Darin, was to have been the featured attraction in a "Graceland West" attraction commemorating the career of the 70-year-old "Mr. Las Vegas" crooner. But those plans have crumbled.

Kathleen Newton's sister, Tricia McCrone, lives in another home on the property. Newton's 92-year-old former longtime personal secretary, Mona Matoba, lives in a third.

An exotic menagerie including Newton's penguins, swans and Arabian horses also stay, Kathleen Newton said.

Well, maybe not, said Joseph Wielebinski, a Dallas-based lawyer representing the property owner, CSD LLC, in a bitterly contested Chapter 11 reorganization.

"We have teed up that issue for resolution by the judge," Wielebinski said. "It is anything but certain whether the Newtons remain on the property or not."

The Newtons don't own the Casa de Shenandoah property anymore, Wielebinski said.

While Newton certainly owns his famous Arabian horses, he doesn't own the irrigated green pastures where they graze. The court will have to decide if he owns the barns where they're kept. And leases can be broken during bankruptcy reorganization.

"This is a business divorce. Everything is contested," Wielebinski said.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Bruce Markell in Las Vegas is poised during hearings March 29 and April 8 to rule on questions about who owns what.

The judge last month approved letting CSD sell animals including two sloths, several wallabies and more than 100 birds including swans, a crowned crane, macaws and love birds for $27,300 to a wildlife center in northern Oregon.

Kellie Caron, curator at the Zoological Wildlife Conservation Center in Rainier, Ore., didn't list penguins among the animals she said she expects to be taking in. She said the animals involved in the sale belonged to CSD, not the Newtons.

The breakup is complicated by the structure of the June 2010 land purchase deal around which the Wayne Newton tourism attraction would have been built.

Wayne and Kathleen Newton, through a business entity called Sacred Land LLC, own 20 percent of their bankrupt landlord, CSC LLC. Lacy and Dorothy Harber of Texas, through DLH LLC, own 70 percent of the property ownership entity. CSD Management LLC, made up of project manager Steven Kennedy and his partner, Geneva Clark, have a 10 percent stake.

There is also intense acrimony between the parties. The two sides traded allegations of fraud, mismanagement, animal abuse and sexual harassment even before the case reached bankruptcy court. Newton lawyer J. Stephen Peek alleged during a breach of contract hearing last summer in state court there had been death threats.

One thing that Newton attorney Bryce Kunimoto and Charles McCrea Jr., an attorney representing the Harbers, agreed upon Friday was that nothing was certain.

"Though CSD will probably disagree, the Newtons have a right under the lease to remain on the property," Kunimoto said.

McCrea said the Newtons may be able to remain in the three houses if they want.

"But they will not have control over the entire 'Casa de Shenandoah' property, only that portion occupied by the houses," he said. "The Newtons may decide they don't want to stay in the houses because they will have little say on what may be developed around them."

Swiss police arrest "healer" accused of infecting 16 with HIV



ZURICH (Reuters) - Swiss police have arrested a self-styled healer after he stopped attending a trial where he stands accused of infecting 16 people with HIV using acupuncture needles.

Swiss police said on Friday that they stormed the home of the 54-year-old man, who had barricaded himself inside, was armed with a knife and had issued repeated threats. An unidentified woman with him was also arrested.

The man had been free on bail since August. His trial began on March 6, but he stopped turning up in court on Thursday.

The case came to the attention of the Swiss authorities after an HIV-positive patient told a Berne hospital he had traced his infection back to acupuncture treatments carried out by the accused. The man has denied the charges.

According to Swiss media, the majority of the infected individuals were students of a music school run by the man, who also ran an acupuncture practice.

In accordance with Swiss criminal proceedings, the suspect's identity has not been released.

(Reporting By Katharina Bart; Editing by Emma Farge and Paul Casciato)

Pope Francis trinkets sell briskly near Vatican



VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Less than 48 hours after his surprise election, Pope Francis's smiling face adorns pendants and devotional souvenir cards packaged with rosaries at the trinket stands near St. Peter's Square.

Small plastic bags containing a picture of Francis and a rosary - a string of prayer beads - were selling for 7 euros (5.96 pounds) at Antonio Cardone's stand and postcards showing the new pontiff were selling briskly at 50 cents.

"We expect more stuff to arrive in the coming days," said Cardone. "Especially when he's officially installed on Tuesday."

Another stallholder, Stefano Di Segni, said his suppliers were scrambling to meet demand now that uncertainty had ended over who would succeed after the abdication of Benedict XVI.

Nearby, outside a Vatican City bookshop, tourists were swarming around posters with the face of the new pope on one side and excerpts from his first address on the other. Inside, they were buying Pope Francis pendants and holy cards.

Di Segni said the most popular item on his stall was still a rosary set with an image of Pope John Paul II, who died in 2005.

But he said Francis, the former Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina, had the potential to become as revered as his much-loved Polish predecessor, who reigned for 27 years.

"I think he's going to be a good pope," said Di Segni, who has run trinket stands around the Vatican for 30 years.

"He was very emotional when he spoke for the first time, so different from Benedict, who was more cold and reserved."

(Reporting By Catherine Hornby; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

Gomez in an 'awkward' transition with 'Breakers'



LOS ANGELES (AP) "A little awkward" is how Selena Gomez describes her transition from Disney girl to Disney girl gone wild in the new R-rated independent film "Spring Breakers," in which she plays a bikini-clad and heavily armed college student bent on a good time with three friends and some drugs, sex and violence.

"I am getting a little bit older, so I wanted to push myself and kind of get into a little bit more of an indie world. And it was a really great experience for me. And at the same time it has been, of course, a little awkward, but great," the 20-year-old Gomez said Thursday at the film's Hollywood premiere.

Known for her role on Disney's "Wizards of Waverly Place," Gomez actually began moving to a faster track as Justin Bieber's now ex-girlfriend. "Honestly, it's been a weird transition. You never really know what's right or wrong and you can only do the best you can," she said.

Directed by art-house favorite Harmony Korine and also starring James Franco and Vanessa Hudgens of Disney's "High School Musical" fame, "Spring Breakers" follows four young women on a Florida coast vacation romp they financed with a diner robbery.

Some of Gomez's young fans were gathered outside the ArcLight Theatre hoping to catch a glimpse of the star. But she warned them not to go inside.

"I think they're really here to see me. I don't think they're here to see the movie," she said. "This was a little bit different. So yes, they shouldn't go see this."

Gomez is also getting attention these days for her own recent reactions to her split with Bieber. A breakup song from her new album called "Rule The World" just leaked on the Internet. "Our love was made to rule the world. You came and broke the perfect girl," she sings.

Commenting on the song, Gomez would only say, "That's not my first single. But it was a song I recorded. But you'll get to know my album a little bit soon sooner than later."

Rapper Lil Wayne reported in critical condition after seizures



LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rapper Lil Wayne was reported to be in critical condition and in a medically induced coma in a Los Angeles hospital on Friday after suffering seizures, according to celebrity website TMZ.

TMZ.com, citing unnamed sources, said Lil Wayne, 30, whose real name is Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., was in intensive care after suffering multiple seizures earlier this week.

Wayne's representatives did not return calls for comment.

TMZ said the rapper, 30, was admitted to Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles and was released on Wednesday, but readmitted a few hours later after his bodyguard found him unconscious on the floor of his room.

Lil Wayne, a native of New Orleans, began rapping at the age of nine, when he became the youngest artist to be signed by Cash Money record label.

The "Got Money" rapper has released nine studio albums over a two decade career and has become one of the biggest names in rap music.

(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy, editing by Jill Serjeant and David Brunnstrom)

FDA shuts New Jersey bakery for sugar in "sugar free" treats



MONTCLAIR, New Jersey (Reuters) - Federal authorities shut down a New Jersey bakery after finding sugar in its "sugar free" goods and saturated fat in its "fat free" treats, the Food and Drug Administration said on Friday.

Butterfly Bakery Inc., in Clifton, which advertised its products as "Made with 100% Love," was shuttered on Wednesday after a federal judge approved a permanent injunction against it.

The bakery was accused of unlawfully misbranding products as "sugar free" and "fat free" when they had as much as three times the amount of declared sugar and two times the amount of declared saturated fat, according to an FDA statement.

"They have had repeated violations," FDA spokeswoman Tamara Ward told Reuters on Friday. "This is when we take action."

Butterfly Bakery on its Facebook page said it had been under FDA scrutiny for nearly two years to correct the problem. It said three of its 45 items were cited for problems.

The bakery was not immediately available for comment.

(Reporting by Linda Federico-O'Murchu; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Leslie Adler)

Oprah named most influential celebrity for second year



NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oprah Winfrey was crowned America's most influential celebrity for a second straight year on Friday, despite having dropped off daily television in 2011.

Forbes magazine ranked Winfrey, 59, ahead of Hollywood titans Steven Spielberg and Clint Eastwood and towering over other TV figures such as journalist Barbara Walters and financial guru Suze Orman.

Forbes said that 48 percent of people surveyed rated Winfrey as influential, down just one point from last year. The list was drawn from polls of Americans conducted by E-Poll Market Research, which ranks more than 7,500 celebrities based on 46 different personality attributes.

Winfrey ended her daily "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in May 2011 after 25 years to launch the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), which features lifestyle programming aimed at women.

After struggling in the ratings since its launch, OWN has seen audiences rise recently, thanks to Winfrey's January world exclusive with cyclist Lance Armstrong admitting to years of doping, and her wide-ranging interview with R&B singer Beyonce.

Forbes noted that Winfrey's magic had rubbed off as well, with one of her prot g es, TV physician Dr. Mehmet Oz, ranking sixth on the list.

Film directing, however, seems to be the profession most associated with influence, as four directors, including Ron Howard and Martin Scorsese, crowded into the Top 10.

E-Poll Chief Executive Gerry Philpott said that while influence could mean different things to different people, most often it reflects someone's impact on the culture.

Reflecting on Spielberg's runner-up ranking, Philpott said "To this day, ask anyone what they think about before going in the ocean," referring to the filmmaker's 1975 blockbuster "Jaws."

Dropping out of the Top 10 entirely was last year's No. 2 finisher, actor Michael J. Fox, who has been out of the public eye of late.

Eastwood, who made headlines by addressing an empty chair at the 2012 Republican National Convention, rounded out the Top 10.

The Top 10 Most Influential Celebrities of 2013, according to Forbes are;

1. Oprah Winfrey

2. Steven Spielberg

3. Martin Scorsese

4. Ron Howard

5. George Lucas

6. Dr. Mehmet Oz

7. Barbara Walters

8. U2 frontman Bono

9. Suze Orman

10. Clint Eastwood

The full list can be seen at http://www.forbes.com/sites/dorothypomerantz/2013/03/14/oprah-winfrey-tops-our-list-of-the-most-influential-celebrities/

(Reporting by Chris Michaud, editing by Jill Serjeant)

Radio frequency chip makers tune in to smartphone race



By Sayantani Ghosh and Sruthi Ramakrishnan

(Reuters) - Radio frequency chip makers are set to gain as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Apple Inc unveil ever more sophisticated smartphones and tablets to battle for the No. 1 spot in the global mobile devices market.

Investors and analysts say they like shares of RF Micro Devices Inc, Skyworks Solutions Inc and Avago Technologies Ltd - companies that make the chips that enable gadgets to send and receive data wirelessly.

Samsung unveiled its latest flagship phone, the Galaxy S4, in New York on Thursday. The S4 can stop and start videos when someone looks at the screen, flip between songs at the wave of a hand and record sound to accompany pictures.

As manufacturers improve and add new features to phones, which are increasingly used to stream music, video and games, they are boosting the RF chip technology used in the devices.

"The RF content in handsets continues to go up," said Stewart Stecker, a portfolio manager at AlphaOne Capital. "That's good from an immediate to longer-term perspective for the entire RF supply chain."

The importance of RF chips will increase as network operators deploy high-speed wireless technology known as 4G LTE (long-term evolution), analysts said.

LTE requires a much higher number of frequency bands, which increases the number of RF chips in a phone.

The global LTE market is expected to almost double this year, surpassing the $10 billion mark, according to a March 13 report from telecom market research firm Infonetics Research.

"As you add LTE - that's a whole other frequency - you need more radio, more RF equipment," said Northland Securities analyst Tom Sepenzis.

A Verizon customer, for example, using a Samsung Galaxy S4 while traveling the world, would need to be able to use the LTE network in the United States and other countries, said Sepenzis.

"That requires more complex amplifiers that can handle multiple frequencies, requires better antenna solutions, switching capability to handle all the different frequencies. That obviously favors the RF component manufacturers," he said.

DIVERSIFYING ORDERS

Within the RF chip supplier group, analysts said those that have diversified their client base by supplying to Samsung, Apple, and other smartphone vendors such as China's ZTE Corp are best placed to take advantage of demand.

After chipping away for years at Apple's market share, Samsung emerged as the No. 1 seller of smartphones last year, undercutting its main competitor with cheaper handsets and a wide range of products.

Samsung sold 64.5 million smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2012, compared with 43.5 million iPhones sold by Apple, data from market research company Gartner shows.

Greensboro, North Carolina-based RF Micro receives about a quarter of its revenue from Samsung, up from 10 percent a year ago, data compiled by analysts showed. Orders from Apple account for a fifth of sales, they said. RF Micro declined to comment.

Power amplifier maker Skyworks relies on Samsung and Apple for about a quarter each of its revenue, analysts said. Skyworks was not available for comment.

T. Rowe Price Global Technology fund portfolio manager Josh Spencer said he likes Avago Technologies Ltd.

"Avago has some very high-end filtering technology that you have to have in the smartphone antennas," Spencer said, adding that he was also considering buying RF Micro's stock.

Shares of RF Micro and Skyworks gained 15 percent and 21 percent respectively from the beginning of the year until February 21, when the upward trend was interrupted by Qualcomm Inc's unveiling of plans to make its own RF chip.

But both stocks recovered a day later after analysts said it was unlikely that Qualcomm would risk damaging integrated circuit partnerships to seek a profit opportunity of not more than $600 million.

Qualcomm has nearly half of the global market for "baseband" chips, which connect mobile phones to cellular networks, and therefore is also set to benefit from rapid LTE growth.

The S4 will use Samsung's application processor in some regions and Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips, which have LTE features, in others.

"Qualcomm has such dominance in the baseband market that they have pricing leverage even against big customers," Spencer said.

(Editing by Robin Paxton)

Man who set fire in U.S. nuclear sub gets 17-year sentence



By Sarah Mahoney

PORTLAND, Maine (Reuters) - A civilian painter who twice set fires on a U.S. Navy nuclear submarine last year so that he could get out of work early was sentenced to 17 years in prison on Friday.

Casey James Fury, 25, set two fires nearly a month apart that caused as much as $500 million in damages to the U.S.S. Miami attack submarine that was in the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard for maintenance.

Prosecutors had requested a 20-year sentence after Fury pleaded guilty in November. Fury's lawyer had argued for a 15-year sentence, reflecting his client's extreme anxiety, for which he was taking medication at the time.

Fury, of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, started the first fire on May 23 with a plastic bag filled with rags, igniting a blaze that burned for 12 hours, and caused between $400 million and $500 million in damages and injured five people, prosecutors said.

"The fire easily could have been fatal," Assistant U.S. Attorney Darcie McElwee said at the sentencing hearing at U.S. District Court in Portland, Maine. The fire endangered 50 workers who had been performing maintenance to the submarine and imperiled emergency responders, McElwee said.

Fury also pleaded guilty to setting a second fire on June 16, two days after he had been arrested on suspicion of drunk driving. That fire was put out quickly and caused little damage. On June 19, he pulled a fire alarm, causing another evacuation of the sub.

"The second fire is especially troubling, and displays a callous disregard for property and safety of others, after what he had seen in the first fire," Judge George Singal said.

Singal also ordered Fury to undergo substance abuse counseling, mental health treatment and to pay $400 million in restitution.

Fury confessed to setting the fires to create a reason for him to leave work early, because he had no available sick or vacation time to claim.

Fury told Navy investigators he was taking a variety of medications for anxiety, depression, allergies and insomnia when he set the first fire.

Repairs to the submarine will not be completed until 2015, and the Navy plans to use the vessel for 10 years after that, the U.S. Defense Department said in August.

(Editing by Scott Malone and Nick Zieminski)