Danny Puff

BEIJING (AP) Hollywood actor Robert Downey Jr. has traveled to Beijing to promote "Iron Man 3," which was filmed partly in China and features well-known Chinese actors.

At a news conference Saturday, Downey who reprises the role of Tony Stark in the upcoming movie said he's fascinated with Chinese culture and loves Chinese movies, while urging the local audience to see the superhero film.

"Iron Man 3" was financed in part by the Chinese company DMG, which has created for the movie the role of Dr. Wu, played by the Chinese actor Wang Xueqi.

DMG chairman Xiao Wenge said introducing Chinese culture to the world is a core mission of his company. China also is a major overseas market for Hollywood movies.

"Iron Man 3" opens internationally later this month.

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TALLINN, Estonia (AP) Tired of grumbling about economic austerity? Maybe it's time to sing about it.

So say two Americans living in Estonia.

Inspired by a lively social media exchange between Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, the two expats have composed an operetta that offers point and counterpoint on the value of austerity an ever more prominent reality in Europe's struggling economy.

"Music and economics are not mutually exclusive," said Eugene Birman, who composed the music for the oeuvre premiering Sunday as part of the annual Estonian Music Days festival. Scott Diel wrote the lyrics.

In the 16-minute performance, an Estonian soprano presents both sides of the online spat, accompanied by the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra.

Last year Krugman, writing in his blog in The New York Times, questioned the benefits of Estonia becoming "a poster child for austerity defenders" after the nation saw economic output collapse by nearly 20 percent during the 2008-2009 financial crisis. Unemployment soared and many Estonians fled the country for work elsewhere in Europe.

Ilves, a former U.S. citizen who gave up his passport to serve in Estonia's government, reacted with a Twitter salvo that slammed Krugman for being "smug, overbearing and patronizing."

The English language operetta's title "Nostra Culpa" "Our Fault" in Latin is taken from one of Ilves' sarcastic tweets: "But yes, what do we know? We're just dumb and silly East Europeans. Unenlightened. Someday we too will understand. Nostra culpa."

In another tweet, Ilves suggested that the dispute boiled down to "a Princeton vs. Columbia thing" a reference to Krugman's professorship at Princeton University and Ilves' degree from Columbia University.

At a rehearsal this week, the orchestra led by conductor Risto Joost gave a powerful rendition of Birman's atonal score, as soprano Iris Oja tried to capture the sarcasm and indignation of Ilves' tweets.

"Silly. Eastern. Europeans? Unenlightened?" she sang, pausing after each word before bawling a high-pitched "Nostra Culpaaaa!"

Birman says he was fascinated by the "almost animalistic reaction" that he saw in Ilves' attempt to defend the honor of Estonia, a nation of 1.3 million, whose government raised taxes and cut salaries for public sector workers in response to the country's deep recession.

"A knightly crusade against the oppressor, if you will. Don't you think that's classic opera material?" said Birman, who was born in neighboring Latvia but grew up in the U.S.

Diel, who has followed Estonia's economic development in the past 20 years since it gained independence from the Soviet Union, picked up on the debate and proposed putting it to music to Birman.

Diel said the libretto is divided into two movements. The first quotes from Krugman's blog to reflect his Keynesian philosophy of spending your way out of crisis. The second part is based on Ilves' tweets.

Nowhere in the operetta are Ilves or Krugman mentioned, as the composers wanted to give the work a wider focus. "I thought this exchange between these two gentlemen was on some level a proxy for the larger argument," Diel said. "But let the listeners decide."

Birman, who also studied economics at Columbia, said it's not a piece about personalities or egos. "There is no winner or loser," he said.

With Cyprus joining the increasingly long list of European countries forced to swallow the bitter prescription of austerity steep budget cuts that trigger joblessness and social angst the theme hasn't lost its timeliness.

Birman's composition isn't easy to categorize. Oja said the work is best described as contemporary: "I find it very alive, almost like improvisation."

Neither Krugman nor Ilves responded to requests for comment. Birman and Diel said they had invited both to Sunday's performance but received no replies.

"Makes no difference to me whether they attend or not," Birman said. "It's not about particular persons."

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PHOENIX (Reuters) - The cowboy now has a home on the range in Arizona.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer on Friday signed legislation creating an annual "National Day of the Cowboy" to honor the Western state's "unique cowboy culture" and recognize its proper place in history.

"Many of the blessings enjoyed by Arizonans today are because of the contributions of our Keepers of the Range: The Arizona cowboy and cowgirl," Brewer, a Republican, said in a statement on Friday.

"These men and women - of all races and backgrounds - are among the truest symbols of the American southwest."

The cowboys will be honored every fourth Saturday in July. It will not be a paid legal holiday.

Arizona, which last year celebrated its 100th anniversary, becomes the fourth state in the nation to observe such a day, joining New Mexico, Wyoming and California.

(Reporting by David Schwartz; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Xavier Briand)

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(Reuters) - Two senior U.S. senators welcomed a petition launched by former boxer Mike Tyson to have heavyweight champ Jack Johnson posthumously pardoned by President Barack Obama for race crimes a century ago.

Democratic leader Harry Reid and Republican John McCain, longtime Johnson supporters, joined fellow boxing champions Lennox Lewis and Laila Ali, the daughter of retired boxing legend Muhammad Ali, in backing Tyson's petition on grassroots campaign website Change.org.

The petition says Johnson, the first black heavyweight boxing champion of the world "is long overdue a pardon. Johnson paved the way for black boxers like me."

"Thanks to @MikeTyson for joining effort to pardon Jack Johnson's racially motivated conviction," McCain said on Twitter on Thursday.

"One great boxer standing up for another," Reid tweeted on Wednesday.

Reid and McCain, along with Senator William Cowan and U.S. Representative Peter King, introduced a resolution calling for Johnson's pardon in March. Pardons require presidential approval.

More than 1,400 people have signed the petition since Tyson launched it Wednesday.

Johnson, the world heavyweight champion from 1908 until 1915, was convicted in 1913 for transporting a woman across state lines for immoral purposes. The law, meant to combat prostitution, was often used in the segregation era as a way to punish interracial couples.

Johnson, who was married three times, all to white women, was arrested in 1920 after seven years in exile and spent a year in jail. He died in 1946 at age 68.

At least two previous attempts to get Johnson pardoned have come to nothing in the past 10 years.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

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DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) An African leopard tortoise thought to be stolen from an Iowa museum was actually trapped behind paneling in her enclosure, and a misguided employee who found her lied to keep up the story about her theft, the museum announced Friday.

In a bizarre move, the employee who found the 18-pound reptile named Cashew put her into a building elevator in an attempt to prevent the museum further embarrassment, said Jerry Enzler, president and CEO of the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium in Dubuque.

The tortoise was found alone in a museum elevator on Thursday, two days after the museum had discovered she was missing and announced that she had been stolen. Museum officials told media outlets Thursday that they believed a regretful thief had smuggled her back inside.

But several hours later, a museum employee came forward and told the truth: Cashew was never stolen.

"The action taken by the employee Thursday afternoon was wrong and is not reflective of the integrity of the staff who dedicate themselves to the highest of Museum & Aquarium standards," Enzler said in a statement Friday.

Enzler said the employee, whose name and position has not been released, will be reprimanded. He said it was a personal issue and did not provide any additional information.

Cashew is one of six large tortoises on display in the enclosure. A 4-foot glass wall separates visitors from the creatures.

Enzler said the notion of a stolen tortoise grabbed national attention.

"The idea that someone may steal a tortoise was so disturbing, and I think people responded to that," he said.

He's just glad the tortoise is in good health, and he said staff is reviewing the enclosures.

"It has good karma to know Cashew wasn't stolen and someone didn't violate the museum and its exhibit," he said. "I think it restores our faith in humanity to know someone didn't take the animal."

The 9-year-old tortoise will be back on display Saturday.

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actress Halle Berry is pregnant with her second child, her first with fiance Olivier Martinez, representatives for Berry said on Friday.

Berry's representatives gave no details, but celebrity news website TMZ, citing sources close to the couple, said Berry was about three months pregnant and is expecting a boy.

Berry, 46, has a five-year-old daughter, Nahla, with ex-boyfriend, Canadian model Gabriel Aubry. After a long and acrimonious battle for custody, Berry and Aubry finally reached an agreement in November.

The Oscar-winning "Monster's Ball" star and French actor Martinez, 47, have been engaged since March 2012.

(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Vicki Allen)

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By Tara Oakes

PARIS (Reuters) - The roof of France's National Assembly is ready to buzz with activity after the arrival of three large bee hives this week as part of a project to promote pesticide-free honey.

The bees are expected to be moved in once the weather warms up, should produce up to 150 kg of honey a year and help pollinate flowering plants around the capital at a time of worldwide decline in bee numbers.

The project is part of a new trend across Europe to put bee colonies on city rooftops, taking advantage of the fact that bees adapt well to urban living and can target the many varieties of long-blooming inner-city greenery.

"This is a great symbol for us," Thierry Duroselle, head of the Society of French Beekeepers, talking to Reuters about the new hives perched atop part of the grandiose 18th Century palace on the Seine River that houses the lower house of parliament.

"We think it's a nice opportunity to educate people - the public and politicians - on the role of bees."

Despite their reputation for painful stings, bees are vital for human existence. A global decline in their numbers, the reasons for which are baffling scientists, is alarming everyone from farmers to European Union policy makers.

The loss of habitat due to urban expansion, and, in France, an invasion of bee-eating Asian hornets, is adding to a phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder.

More than two-thirds of the 100 crop species that provide 90 percent of the world's food are pollinated by bees, including fruit, nuts and grains. A 2011 United Nations report estimates the work done by bees and other pollinators to help food crops reproduce is worth 153 billion euros (129 billion pounds) a year.

The EU is still battling to agree on a ban of farm pesticides linked to the decline of honeybees, but studies show the insects adapt well to city living as the plants they encounter there have been treated with fewer chemicals.

While bee colonies adhere to a firmly royalist system, the hives have been painted in the post-revolutionary French flag colours of red, white and blue in a nod to the swarm of lawmakers below in the Fifth Republic's lower house.

Six volunteer beekeepers from among the National Assembly staff will tend the hives, which are nestled together on a raised platform on the roof of a rear palace building.

Despite their enviable Parisian vista, the bees will be packed tightly into their windowless homes, with each of the hives housing up to 50,000 bees in the summer months, a population that will drop to 15,000 in the winter.

Left-wing lawmaker Laurence Dumont said estimated annual honey production should fill around 800 pots a year which would be given to schoolchildren on educational visits or charities.

The farm ministry is working to revive beekeeping and reduce a dependence on imported honey, and Paris already sports bee hives atop other prestigious buildings including the Garnier Opera and the swanky Tour d'Argent left-bank restaurant.

Meanwhile another species began doing its civic duty in the city this week as four fluffy black sheep were unleashed in a public garden under a new plan to use grazing animals, rather than machines, to trim city lawns.

(Reporting by Tara Oakes; Editing by Catherine Bremer and Paul Casciato)

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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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