Danny Puff

PITTSBURGH (AP) An Ohio prosecutor who light-heartedly filed a criminal indictment against the famous Pennsylvania groundhog who fraudulently "predicted" an early spring said he may consider a pardon now that the animal's handler is taking the blame.

Bill Deeley, president of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club's Inner Circle, told The Associated Press on Monday that the animal rightly predicted six more weeks of winter last month, but he mistakenly announced an early spring because he failed to correctly interpret Phil's "groundhog-ese."

"I'm the guy that did it; I'll be the fall guy. It's not Phil's fault," Deeley said.

Butler County, Ohio, prosecutor Mike Gmoser told the AP that he's reconsidering the charges in light of the new evidence and may issue a full pardon.

"Frankly, he is a cute little rascal, a cute little thing," Gmoser said. "And if somebody is willing to step up to the plate and take the rap, I'm willing to listen."

The Groundhog Day celebration in Punxsutawney, a borough about 65 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, attracts worldwide attention each year. But the attention stretched well beyond Feb. 2 when Gmoser last week issued an indictment as winter-like weather continued across much of the nation even as spring began.

"Punxsutawney Phil did purposely, and with prior calculation and design cause the people to believe that spring would come early," Gmoser's indictment said. The penalty? Death, Smoser said, tongue firmly in cheek.

Deeley said this is the second year in a row he's misinterpreted Phil's forecast. "Remember, last year at this time it was 80 degrees and Phil had predicted six more weeks of winter," Deeley said.

Under normal circumstances, Deeley's interpretation of the forecast is infallible, as long as he clings to the gnarly, magical "Arcadian" cane while the rodent whispers the forecast into his ear. Deeley still doesn't know what went wrong, but he said the borough is nonetheless pleased to still be in the news more than six weeks later although there's more snow on the ground, and local schools were closed Monday.

"We couldn't have generated this much publicity with a $10,000 ad campaign," he said.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) Film fans can already mark their calendars for the Academy Awards in 2014 and 2015.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Monday that next year's Oscar ceremony will be held March 2. The 2015 trophies will be handed out Feb. 22.

Awards shows, including the Oscars, are juggling their calendars to avoid overlap with the 2014 Winter Olympics, which will be held Feb. 7-23 in Sochi, Russia.

The Screen Actors Guild and the Producers Guild of America each pushed up their 2014 awards ceremonies to the weekend of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, on Jan. 18 and 19, respectively.

The Directors Guild will present its annual awards on Jan. 25, 2014. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has yet to announce when its Golden Globe Awards ceremony will be held.

Nominations for the 86th annual Academy Awards will be announced Jan. 16, 2014, more than six weeks before the ceremony.

The Academy Awards in both 2014 and 2015 will be presented at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles and broadcast live on ABC.

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NEW YORK (AP) It's not the kind of performance that will win her another Academy Award, but Tilda Swinton certainly has them buzzing at the Museum of Modern Art.

But keep it down, please. She's trying to sleep.

The "Moonrise Kingdom star has been engaging in a different kind of performance art. She's presenting a one-person piece called "The Maybe," in which she lies sleeping in a glass box for the day. The first performance was over the weekend, and the museum won't say if there's a schedule for when exactly it will come back for six other performances.

On Monday, the display drew a line of spectators that wound through a whole second-floor gallery into a museum hallway.

Erwin Aschenbrenner, a bemused German tourist, said it "just what you'd expect to see at MoMA."

The actress "is so pale and not moving in there that she looks like she's dead," said Robbie von Kampen, 20, a philosophy major at Bard College, north of New York City.

But after about seven hours a day of the shuteye pose on a white mattress in the glass box with only a carafe of water and a glass to get her through Swinton can stretch and walk off into the Manhattan night. But only when spectators leave.

So what's the point?

"This makes me think about myself, looking at her," said Quinn Moreland, 20, also a Bard student, majoring in art history.

"You don't usually get to stare at somebody like this; it makes me self-conscious," she explained.

Added von Kampen, "Yeah, it's socially unacceptable it's kinda creepy."

No one, not even museum curators, could say whether the thin, mostly immobile Swinton is actually getting some sleep while people stare at her.

At least Swinton was comfortable. She wore a pair of grubby sneakers, dark sporty slacks and a checkered shirt. Her glasses lay on the mattress.

But no snacks were in sight. And none could be offered in the closed chamber.

Swinton also starred in a glass box in 1995 at London's Serpentine Gallery seven days, eight hours a day in an exhibition seen by 22,000 people.

The next year, she repeated the spectacle at the Museo Barracco in Rome.

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By Fred Thornhill

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada got a taste of international panda diplomacy on Monday with the arrival of two "Very Important Pandas" at the start of a 10-year loan to two Canadian zoos.

Speaking as the two giant pandas arrived in Toronto from China, Chinese Ambassador Zhang Junsai - who gave the animals the VIP designation - noted that when he started his posting in Canada two years ago, he was greeted only by the Canadian director of protocol.

But the panda pair, Er Shun, 5, and Da Mao, 4, merited a personal welcome from Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who reached an agreement on the panda loan during a visit to China last year.

"I am very delighted to officially welcome to Canada ... a pair of China's national treasures," Harper said at the airport.

"China wants to be known for other than economic prowess," Gordon Houlden, director of the China Institute at the University of Alberta, told CTV television. "This helps serve that purpose."

Officials hope that Er Shun, who is female, and Da Mao, who is male, will mate during their five years in Toronto and five subsequent years in Calgary, Alberta, to produce the first Canadian-born panda cubs.

Any cubs would be the property of China, staying with Er Shun at least until they are one year old, and eventually going back to China - thus allowing the Chinese to maintain a virtual monopoly over the supply of giant pandas.

China has frequently loaned pandas to foreign zoos, in deals that can be lucrative to both sides. Fees paid by the host countries help fund panda research in China, but the zoos hope to recoup that and more in extra visitors.

Other costs include the vast quantities of bamboo that the two pandas will eat - they spend 10 to 16 hours a day eating 14 to 20 kg (31 to 44 lbs) of bamboo.

FedEx Corp, which flew the pandas to Canada from China, will fly in 600 to 900 kg (1,320 to 1,980 pounds) of bamboo each week from the Memphis Zoo in Tennessee because "pandas are picky eaters," it said.

(Writing by Randall Palmer; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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TORONTO (Reuters) - BlackBerry stock fell nearly 4 percent on Monday after Goldman Sachs cut its rating, citing a disappointing U.S. launch for the smartphone maker's new touchscreen device that went on sale in the United States on Friday.

"Our retail checks at over 20 store locations since March 22, including at AT&T, Best Buy, and RadioShack, revealed a surprising lack of marketing support and poor positioning of the product," Goldman Sachs analyst Simona Jankowski said in a note to clients on Monday.

Jankowski also said advertising of the product launch was limited.

"As a result, despite the product itself being relatively well received by sales associates and online reviews, sell-through at most locations was less than 10 per day," said Jankowski.

The brokerage firm cut its rating on shares of BlackBerry to "neutral" from "buy."

BlackBerry shares were down 3.9 percent at $14.33 in trading before the morning bell in the United States.

(Reporting by Euan Rocha; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

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NEW YORK (AP) The Video Music Awards are taking a road trip to Brooklyn.

MTV's showcase awards show is traditionally held in Los Angeles or Manhattan.

This year the show will be held Aug. 25 at the new Barclays Center, home of the New York Nets and the recent Rolling Stones and Jay-Z multi-night concerts.

MTV will celebrate 30 years of the VMAs this year. From Kanye West and Taylor Swift to the Madonna-Britney Spears-Christina Aguilera kiss, the show has become known more for its pop culture moments than the winners of its signature moonman trophies.

The VMAs were last held in New York in 2009 and have been in Los Angeles since.

___

Online:

http://mtv.com

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BRUSSELS (AP) Feel like having chocolate at Easter in Belgium? Well, send a letter and really lick that chocolate-flavored postal stamp.

The Belgian post office released 538,000 stamps on Monday that have pictures of chocolate on the front but the essence of cacao oil in the glue at the back for taste and in the ink for smell.

Belgian stamp collector Marie-Claire Verstichel said while the taste was a bit disappointing, "they smell good."

Easter is the season for chocolate in Belgium with Easter eggs and bunnies all over supermarkets and speciality stores.

A set of five stamps costs 6.2 euros ($8) but might leave a customer hungry for more.

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By John Tilak

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index fell to 1-1/2 week low on Monday as a euro zone bailout deal appeared to defuse the Cyprus debt crisis and took the safe-haven shine off bullion prices, sending gold-mining shares lower.

The market was further weakened by a decline in shares of BlackBerry after Goldman Sachs cut its rating on the stock, citing a disappointing U.S. launch for the smartphone maker's new touchscreen device.

Cyprus clinched a last-ditch deal with international lenders to shut down its second-largest bank and inflict heavy losses on uninsured depositors, including wealthy Russians, in return for a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bailout.

The move is expected to prevent a default and banking meltdown on the island.

"Any closure in a situation like this is welcome," said Philip Petursson, managing director, portfolio advisory group, at Manulife Asset Management. "It provides reassurance that deals are getting done."

However, the weakness in gold shares pulled the Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index down 18.53 points, or 0.15 percent, to 12,738.82. The index touched 12,734.35, its lowest point since March 14. Six of the 10 main sectors on the index were higher.

The materials sector, which includes mining stocks, was down 1.3 percent, with gold stocks slipping 1.8 percent. The price of the precious metal slumped to a 10-week low as investor appetite for safe haven assets fell sharply after the Cyprus deal.

"I'm not a gold bull," Petursson said. "Gold today has priced in a lot of inflation and a lot of risk that may not materialize in the market over the near term."

"We can see more downside than upside," he added.

Goldcorp Inc lost 2 percent to C$33.64, and Barrick Gold Corp fell 1.3 percent to C$29.62. The index's gold sector is down about 16 percent since the start of the year.

BlackBerry dropped 4 percent to C$14.59, causing a 1.2 percent decline in the information technology sector.

Encouraged by the Cyprus deal, financials, the index's weightiest sector, advanced 0.2 percent, with Toronto-Dominion Bank

climbing 0.4 percent to C$84.32. (Editing by Peter Galloway)

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By Gennady Fyodorov

SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) - While Moscow digs itself out of a huge snow storm that hit the Russian capital in the last few days, organizers of the Winter Olympics are worried a lack of white powder could become a problem next February.

Unseasonably warm temperatures this winter in Sochi have forced local organizers to store some 450,000 cubic meters of snow in the nearby Caucasus Mountains that surround this sub-tropical Black Sea resort.

"We've prepared seven separate areas for snow storage high up in the mountains," Sergei Bachin, general director of Roza Khutor, a ski resort in Krasnaya Polyana that will host Alpine skiing, snowboarding and freestyle Olympic competition, told Reuters.

"I want to assure all the competitors that there won't be any shortage of snow next February even if we encounter even warmer temperatures next year," he said.

"We're storing such huge amounts of snow just in case."

The snow will be covered with a "special thermo seal", to protect it from melting during the summer, Bachin said.

"We expect that about 140,000 (cubic meters) will melt away but we'll still have more than 300,000 cubic meters of snow available for next year," he predicted, saying the storage will cost his company an extra $11 million.

Nevertheless, Sochi 2014 chief Dmitry Chernyshenko has stated on several occasions that the weather has become a bigger problem for the organizers, who are frantically trying to finish all the construction projects on time, than security or the infrastructure.

Bachin, however, assured that Krasnaya Polyana, once a sleepy mountain village, about 70 kilometers from central Sochi, would be ready to host all the outdoor Olympic events next February rain or shine.

"Of the 76 Olympic test events scheduled in Krasnaya Polyana this winter a great majority had been completed and only a handful have been called off because of bad weather," he said.

"I think we've passed the test as the last major event of the season was held this weekend in nearby Laura complex."

Usually, Krasnaya Polyana has the opposite problem - too much snow and the risk of avalanches, Bachin said.

"This was a very odd winter. Even locals don't remember when was the last time they had such warm days in the mountains. It's highly unlikely we'll see the same kind of weather next year," he added.

(Editing by Alison Wildey)

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LONDON (AP) Britain's Prince Harry is returning to the United States but this time he's skipping Las Vegas.

The 28-year-old prince will travel to the U.S. east coast as well as Denver and Colorado Springs, Colorado, to support veterans' charities and get in a bit of polo.

Harry, a longtime supporter of charities that rehabilitate war veterans, will attend several events at the 2013 Warrior Games, a competition between British and American veteran athletes.

"Prince Harry wants to highlight once again the extraordinary commitment and sacrifice of our injured servicemen and women," said Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, Harry's private secretary.

Harry recently spent 20 weeks in Afghanistan as co-pilot gunner on an Apache attack helicopter.

His May 9-15 visit will include trips to Arlington National Cemetery, Walter Reed National Medical Center and an exhibition on Capitol Hill about land mine clearance, a favorite subject of his late mother, Princess Diana. He will also visit areas in New Jersey hard hit by Hurricane Sandy.

Harry will also play in the Sentebale Polo Cup in Greenwich, Connecticut. Sentebale which means "forget-me-not" is a charity founded by Harry and Lesotho's Prince Seeiso that helps children struggling with poverty in the tiny southern African country.

On his last U.S. visit, the third-in-line to the British throne stormed into the headlines last year when he was caught frolicking in the nude with a woman after an alleged game of strip billiards in his Las Vegas hotel room.

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