Danny Puff

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain has raised the minimum age for marriage to 16 from what had been one of the lowest in the world at 14 as part of a wider reform to improve health and safety for children and adolescents.

The reform, announced by Spanish Health Minister Ana Mato on Friday, also raises the age for consensual sex from what was the lowest in Europe at 13. The new age will be decided by Parliament.

(Reporting By Paul Day; Writing by Tracy Rucinski)

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HANOI (Reuters) - A fish farmer who became a cult hero in Vietnam after fighting off an illegal eviction with homemade guns and mines was jailed on Friday for five years for attempted murder in a case that has stirred public anger over state-backed land grabs.

Doan Van Vuon, plus two of his brothers and one nephew, were given jail terms of between two and five years for injuring seven police and soldiers in northern Haiphong last January, state media reported. Two of their wives received suspended sentences of 15-18 months for resisting officials.

Land grabs, both legal and illegal, are a major source of public discontent with the state in Communist Vietnam, which owns all the country's land. The case has been a major talking point in social media and blogs, with critics calling for changes in land laws.

The government offered land leases of 20 years to farmers as part of pro-peasant policies in the 1990s, but critics say corrupt state officials have allowed illegal seizures in return for kickbacks from businesses.

State television showed footage this week of the courtroom displaying the cooking gas cylinders, electrical cables and steel pipes Vuon and his relatives used for bombs and hand guns.

The authorities in Haiphong have admitted their eviction was unlawful and several officials face trial next week.

Tran Dinh Trien, a defense lawyer in the trial, said Vuon had no intention of causing harm and had exercised all legal means to protect his land before staging his spectacular display of resistance.

"I had warned them that I would resist. It pained me to have to criminalize this civil issue, so that the agencies would look into it," Trien quoted Vuon as saying in a Facebook posting.

Rapid economic growth, foreign investment and industrial expansion has made land highly lucrative, and Vietnamese who dare to criticize a government that responds harshly to dissent say it has allowed abuses of broad clauses in leases that allow land seizures for reasons of national security, defense, economic development and public interest.

Phil Robertson, Asia deputy director for Human Rights Watch, said the lengths to which Vuon went should serve as a wake-up call for the government about a growing problem.

"The issue of widespread arbitrary land seizures by corrupt officials or without due process and just compensation is what really made this trial resonate in the minds of ordinary Vietnamese people," he said.

(Reporting by Hanoi Newsroom; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)

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By Miyoung Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics is spending more on marketing than R&D for the first time in at least three years, prompting some pundits to warn that the IT giant is sacrificing innovation at a time when the market is teeming with ever smarter gadgets.

The South Korean firm, which warned on Friday it will not post record quarterly earnings for the first time since 2011, looks set to spend big bucks on marketing upcoming mobile devices, including the Galaxy S4 smartphone, to convert more iPhone and iPad users loyal to arch rival Apple Inc.

While the new Galaxy smartphone, unveiled to much fanfare in New York last month, will boast a motion-detecting technology that stops and starts videos depending on whether someone is looking at the screen, and flip between songs and photos at the wave of a hand, industry watchers say the device would not overturn an industry that lives and dies by innovation.

"(Samsung) lagged behind in creating a new category. Apple created a new category with tablets. We are waiting to see something like that happen from Samsung," said Rachel Lashford, an analyst at research firm Canalys in Singapore.

Samsung spent a record 13 trillion won ($11.6 billion) on marketing last year. That was $1.3 billion more than what it poured into research and development.

The firm does not provide marketing and R&D spending forecasts. Some analysts said they expect Samsung to continue spending more on its marketing campaigns than on R&D this year as it fights the next wave of products from Apple.

Smartphone makers are increasingly just tweaking existing specifications such as increasing screen sizes. Every gadget launch by a major global tech giant has so far underwhelmed, lacking the 'wow' factor of old and subsequently pushing their share prices lower, some analysts said.

Apple has tumbled nearly 40 percent since the stock soared to more than $700 in September.

Shares of Samsung hit a record in early January but have since fallen nearly 3 percent. A lack of product lineup in the longer term is also capping their upside, analysts said.

"There is not that much visibility on products next year, but we expect Galaxy Note 3 later this year," said Mark Newman, a senior analyst at Stanford Bernstein in Hong Kong, referring to the phablet that is closer in size to a tablet than a phone.

The smartphone-tablet hybrid, a surprise hit in 2012, appeals to users who prefer larger screens to better access visual content.

Samsung estimated its January-March overall operating profit rose 53 percent to $7.7 billion as mid-tier smartphones and sales in emerging markets helped it tide over the off-peak season.

That marks the end of five straight quarters of record profits for the world's biggest technology firm by revenue.

"We'll keep boosting our R&D spending, while marketing will be executed flexibly according to market conditions," a Samsung spokesman said on Friday.

AHEAD OF APPLE

Apple ramped up its R&D expenditure to $3.38 billion in the year to September 2012, from just $712 million in 2006. Yet that is still far less than what Samsung spends.

"Samsung keeps investing in R&D. They've boosted their smartphone R&D workforce to 25,000 or so from less than 20,000, and I think they have an exciting product lineup ready, probably in the second half, to upend the market," said Lee Do-hoon, an analyst at RBS.

That is a significant departure for a company which used to tear apart a Sony television in 1970s to reverse engineer rivals' products.

Samsung finally overtook Sony to become the world's top TV maker in 2006, largely aided by slim designs and super-thin displays produced as a result of aggressive capital investment.

By contrast, Samsung's mobile devices business now generates 70 percent of its total revenue.

"The Note 3, which I expect to be available in the fourth quarter, will be quite innovative. It'll have a bended display and the screen size will be bigger without having a bigger phone," said RBS's Lee.

"I think it'll be pretty cool." ($1 = 1123.7500 Korean won)

(Reporting by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Ryan Woo)

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BUTTE, Mont. (AP) So the goat that walked into a Montana bar last weekend ... was stolen from a petting zoo.

Fairmont Hot Springs Resort general manager Steve Luebeck says staffers knew the goat was missing but didn't realize it had been stolen until they saw a story in The Montana Standard on Wednesday reporting that a goat had been taken into a Butte bar early Sunday.

The pygmy goat, named "Shirley, was returned to the resort's petting zoo.

Luebeck tells The Standard he has never had an animal stolen from the zoo, which has goats and miniature horses. He says zoo managers would like to know who took the animal so they can press charges.

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Information from: The Montana Standard, http://www.mtstandard.com

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Angelina Jolie has opened another girls school in Afghanistan and plans to fund more from the proceeds of a jewelry line going on sale this week that she helped to design, celebrity website E! News reported on Monday.

Jolie, a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, funded the girls-only primary school in an area outside Kabul that has a high refugee population, E! News said in an exclusive report.

The school educates 200-300 girls, E! said. It showed pictures of the school, which opened in November, and a plaque acknowledging Jolie's contribution.

Jolie also funded a girl school in eastern Afghanistan that opened in 2010, according to the UNCHR.

Jolie's representatives did not return calls for comment.

E! said that Jolie plans to pay for more schools by selling a "Style of Jolie" jewelry line that she helped create with jewelry maker Robert Procop. Procop designed the engagement ring given to the actress by her partner Brad Pitt in April 2012.

"Beyond enjoying the artistic satisfaction of designing these jewels, we are inspired by knowing our work is also serving the mutual goal of providing for children in need," Jolie was quoted as telling the website.

Procop's website said the "first funds from our collaboration together have been dedicated to the Education Partnership for Children in Conflict (founded by Jolie) to build a school in Afghanistan."

According to the Style of Jolie website, the newly expanded collection includes versions of the black and gold necklace that the actress wore to the premiere of her 2010 movie "Salt," a pear-shaped citrine and gold necklace, and rose gold and emerald tablet-shaped rings, earrings and bracelets. No price details were released.

The jewelry will go on retail sale for the first time on April 4 through Kansas City jewelry store Tivol, Tivol said.

Procop told E! that it was "an honor to have the opportunity to be part of creating this line with Angie, as we both believe every child has right to an education."

Jolie is not the first celebrity to open schools in faraway places. Both Oprah Winfrey and Madonna have funded the building of schools in South Africa and Malawi in the past six years, although both ran into trouble.

Madonna's project provoked controversy over costs and mismanagement, while a staff member at Winfrey's school was arrested on charges of assault and abuse of students.

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by David Brunnstrom)

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DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) An 18-pound African leopard tortoise who went missing from an Iowa museum has been found alive in an elevator in the building.

KWWL-TV (http://bit.ly/Zb7sED) reports that officials at the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium in Dubuque believe the tortoise named Cashew was stolen, but that the thief quietly returned the animal.

The museum says a visitor found Cashew on the elevator floor Thursday. She appears to be in good health.

The museum discovered Cashew was missing Tuesday from an exhibit with a 4-foot glass wall. Museum officials suspected she was taken as a prank or to sell.

Museum officials are reviewing surveillance video to try to figure out exactly what happened and find a possible suspect.

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Information from: KWWL-TV, http://www.kwwl.com

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NEW YORK (AP) Rick Ross has formally apologized for lyrics some have called pro-rape.

Thursday's apology in the form of a tweet came the same day a women's group, UltraViolet, planned a protest outside of one of his sponsors, Reebok, in Manhattan.

In Rocko's song "U.O.E.N.O," Ross raps about giving a woman the drug MDMA, known as Molly, and having his way with her. The song was released in January but just recently began getting widespread notice.

Although last week Ross said his lyrics were misinterpreted, he tweeted Thursday that he doesn't condone rape and apologized for lyrics that were "interpreted as rape."

He also offered "apologies to my many business partners, who would never promote violence against women," specifically mentioning Reebok and UltraViolet.

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(Reuters) - Award-winning novelist and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, author of "Heat and Dust" and many other books set in India, died on Wednesday at the age of 85, her Los Angeles agent said.

Jhabvala died at her home in New York City, a spokesman for Hollywood agency Paradigm told Reuters. The spokesman did not give the cause of her death but said she had been sick for some time.

Jhabvala also worked on several movie adaptations with filmmakers James Ivory and Ismail Merchant, winning two Academy Awards for her screenplays for 1985 movie "A Room With a View" and "Howards End" in 1992.

Jhabvala was born in Germany but emigrated with her family to Britain during the Nazi regime. She later married an Indian architect and moved to India, where she began to write about her life there.

Her novel "Heat and Dust," a romance about a young woman living in India in the 1920s, won Britain's coveted Booker Prize in 1975, and was adapted for the big screen in 1983.

Jhabvala collaborated with Merchant and Ivory on more than 20 movies including "The Remains of the Day" and "Mr. And Mrs. Bridge."

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant and Eric Kelsey; Editing by Vicki Allen)

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NEW YORK (AP) "Arrested Development" will be reborn on Netflix on May 26.

The subscription service announced the premiere date Thursday, saying that all 15 episodes of the comedy series will be posted at the same time. The Mitchell Hurwitz sitcom starring Jason Bateman was canceled by Fox in 2006 after three seasons.

"Arrested Development" is the most eagerly anticipated original series from Netflix following the political thriller "House of Cards," which debuted in February.

In a statement, Netflix chief executive Ted Sarandos says the return of the cultishly beloved "Arrested Development" ''is sure to make history all over again."

In response, Hurwitz joked that Sarandos is "going to be immensely disappointed."

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Online:

http://www.netflix.com

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By Lucas Shaw

NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - Matthew McConaughey will star in Christopher Nolan's sci-fi epic "Interstellar," the director's follow-up to "The Dark Knight Rises" and McConaughey's first big-budget film in years. The actor told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune he had accepted the role in the film, confirming reports from about a week ago.

The Texan has undergone a career renaissance over the past couple of years after close to a decade of making charming but redundant romantic comedies. After the "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past," the last in his string of rom-coms, McConaughey took a couple of years off and then starred in "The Lincoln Lawyer" in 2011. 2012 was a year neither the actor nor cinephiles will readily forget.

McConaughey played an enterprising prosecutor in Richard Linklater's "Bernie," a murderous cop in "Killer Joe" and a stripper in "Magic Mike" - all in a span of a few months.

All three films were made on shoestring budgets, and all three paired McConaughey with iconic directors - Linklater, Billy Friedkin and Steven Soderbergh. His performance in "Magic Mike" also earned him an Independent Spirit Award.

McConaughey will next appear in "Dallas Buyers Club" as an AIDS patient and in Martin Scorsese's "The Wolf of Wall Street."

Yet "Interstellar," which Nolan is directing from a script by his brother Jonathan, marks the latest step in McConaughey's career evolution. The story follows a physicist, Kip Throne, who proffered that time travel was possible.

Steven Spielberg was initially slated to direct, but now the Oscar winner will produce with fellow titan Nolan behind the camera.

Though the film, a collaboration between Paramount and Warner Bros., is set to open in the more awards-focused time of November 2014, sci-fi in Nolan's hands will always feel grandiose.

The diversity of roles McConaughey has taken on have landed him in films that are both awards contenders and box office draws. This film would seem to fall in both categories.

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