Three top U.S. wireless carriers to embrace BlackBerry 10

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – Three of the top U.S. cellphone carriers signaled this week that they would support Research In Motion’s BlackBerry 10 products, the first of which are due to be unveiled Jan 30, offering a hopeful sign for RIM’s comeback effort.

Executives at Verizon Communications , AT&T Inc and T-Mobile USA all said they are looking forward to the devices, which will be crucial for RIM’s chances of regaining lost ground from rivals such as Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics .

“We’re hopeful its going to be a good device,” Lowell McAdam, chief executive of Verizon Communications, majority owner of the biggest U.S. mobile service Verizon Wireless.

“We’ll carry it,” McAdam said in an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

BlackBerry 10 is RIM’s next-generation mobile operating platform and it is preparing to launch new smartphones later this month. Word that major carriers will offer the devices is good news for RIM.

RIM, which once commanded the lead in the smartphone market, has rapidly lost ground to Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s line of Galaxy products, especially in North American and European markets, as customers abandon its aging BlackBerry devices.

It has been testing the new BlackBerry 10 devices with carriers so they can assess their compatibility with networks.

No. 4 U.S. mobile provider T-Mobile USA, a unit of Deutsche Telekom , also plans to carry the new BlackBerry 10.

“We’re extremely optimistic that it’s going to be a successful product and our business customers are extremely interested in it,” Chief Executive John Legere said.

AT&T has promised to support the BlackBerry 10 platform, according to Chief Marketing Officer David Christopher, but he would not discuss specific devices.

However, AT&T handset executive Jeff Bradley made it clear that the No. 2 U.S. mobile operator would carry the phone.

“It’s logical to expect our current (BlackBerry) customers will have the best BlackBerry devices to choose from in the future,” Bradley said.

(Reporting By Sinead Carew; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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Oscar Moments: Best & Supporting Actress Wins

The 85th Annual Academy Awards is just six weeks away, and we're taking a look back at four great moments from the last two years: When Meryl Streep, Natalie Portman, Melissa Leo and Octavia Spencer picked up their coveted statuettes.

ET's Complete Academy Awards Coverage

In a bit of an upset, Streep won her third Oscar at the 84th Academy Awards for her spot-on portrayal of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady, besting front-runner Viola Davis (The Help), Glenn Close (Albert Nobbs), Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and Michelle Williams (My Week with Marilyn). "When they called my name I had this feeling that half of America said, 'Oh no, her again?'" said the self-effacing star. "But, whatever." The 17-time Oscar nominee closed her speech by saying she was "sure she'd never be up here again" and thanking, "all my colleagues and all my friends … the thing that counts the most with me is the friendships and the love."

A pregnant Portman danced to the stage to cradle her Best Actress statuette at the 83rd Academy Awards for her riveting performance as a dancer on the edge in Black Swan, out-pirouetting Annette Bening, Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Lawrence and Michelle Williams. "I truly, sincerely wish the prize was to get to work with my fellow nominees," said Natalie. Brought to tears when she thanked her parents for "showing me every day to be a good human being by example," she also singled out her fiance and "beautiful love, Benjamin Millepied, who has now given me my most important role in life."

Video: 83rd Oscars Red Carpet Flashback

The Help star Spencer was named Best Supporting Actress at the 84th Academy Awards over Bridesmaids star Melissa McCarthy, Albert Nobbs' Janet McTeer, The Artist's Bérénice Bejo and her Help co-star Jessica Chastain. "Thank you, Academy, for putting me with the hottest guy in the room," quipped the break-out character actor before breaking down in tears of joy. "I share this with everybody. … I'm sorry, I'm freakin' out. Thank you world!"

And at the 83rd Academy Awards, Leo bested her The Fighter co-star Amy Adams in addition to Helena Bonham Carter, Hailee Steinfeld and Jacki Weaver for the Best Supporting Actress statuette. Asking legendary presenter Kirk Douglas, "Will you pinch me?" Leo basked in the moment, declared, "I'm shakin' in my boots here," then accidentally dropped the F-bomb before she thanked the real-life Fighter clan matron Alice Ward.

Related: Seth MacFarlane to Host 85th Oscars

The 85th Academy Awards will air live from Hollywood on Oscar Sunday, February 24, 2013 on ABC.

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Yacht owner says lenders are trying to take ship in 'fire sale'

He won’t surrender the ship.

The owner of an iconic presidential yacht is suing his lenders claiming they’re trying to commandeer the ship in a “fire sale,” according to documents filed in New York Supreme Court.

The lenders “developed and then instituted a dastardly plan to wrest control of the Sequoia from,” its owner, the complaint states.

Sequoia owner Gary Silversmith, of Washington D.C., was burdened by the costs of maintaining the 104-foot wooden yacht. Built in 1925 it served presidents Hoover to Carter, until the later sold it at auction.

Silversmith received a $5 million loan in July 2003 from D.C.-based company called FE Partners, which the complaint says is owned by a powerful business family from the Indian state of Goa.

But FE Partners only paid Silversmith half the loan and then served him with fabricated default notices, the filing alleges. The notices were issued for infractions like bringing prostitutes abroad the vessel, according to the complaint, which calls those charges “outright false.”

“The plan was to strategically loan only half of what it contracted to loan,” forcing Silversmith to default on his payments and surrender the ship for half its stated $13 million value, court papers say.

The yacht, a National Historic Landmark, is rented out to private groups and used for charities including an organization that helps wounded vets.

Silversmith wants the court to force the lenders to pay the balance on the loan and prevent them from buying the historic ship.

The parties are due in court on Jan. 17.

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Florida company provides electrical power for the world

More than 4,000 miles from its home base in Doral, Energy International is helping keep the lights on and the power grid humming in Gibraltar, the British territory on the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula.

Energy International, a global provider of power plants and energy solutions, sent a temporary plant that will provide power for at least the next two years while a more permanent fix is sought for the territory’s erratic and aging electrical system.

The Doral company was founded 14 years ago as MCA Power Systems and its initial goal was to pursue energy contracts in Latin America. It began in 2000 with a name change and in recent years its focus has become global.

“The world needs energy,’’ said Brett Hall, EI’s vice president of finance.

While the 2007-2008 recession curtailed the growth of worldwide energy demand, the U.S. Energy Information Agency has projected that global demand for electricity will increase by 2.3 percent annually from 2008 to 2035.

The potential is especially strong in developing nations. The International Energy Agency estimated that in 2009, 21 percent of the world’s population — 1.4 billion people — didn’t have access to electricity. In sub-Saharan Africa, the percentage of people without power rises to 69 percent.

Energy International has expanded sales from Latin America and the Caribbean to Europe, Africa and the Middle East, boosting revenue from $100 million annually in 2009 to more than $300 million today, Hall said. This year, EI is anticipating revenue of $350 million to $375 million.

In the next seven years the company, which is privately owned by American shareholders and affiliated with Gecolsa — the Caterpillar dealership in Colombia — hopes revenue will top $1 billion, he said.

Even though Energy International is based in the United States, it does little work domestically. Its sweet spot is emerging economies and projects that require an investment on its part of $100 million or less.

“Our focus is to do whatever makes the most economic sense for a particular market,’’ said Hall.

“We’re not going to be building a nuclear power plant,’’ he said. But EI will accommodate its solutions to local fuel supplies whether it’s biofuel, natural gas or heavy fuels that are more prevalent.

When it comes to the type of temporary power solution needed by Gibraltar, which had been plagued by a string of power outages at its archaic electrical facilities, EI can have a temporary plant up and running in 30 to 40 days, supplying the engineering, rental turbines and other equipment and doing the installation.

“We were able to support Gibraltar’s power needs on short notice,’’ said Andres Molano, EI’s vice president of sales. “Some of their equipment required major maintenance and they needed to stop their plants.’’

EI, one of the world’s largest suppliers of interim energy solutions, signed a $12 million contract with the government of Gibraltar in November and the plant was operational by Dec. 21. The agreement includes an option for a three-year extension.

The equipment now in use in Gibraltar is considered part of EI’s fleet and will move on to other energy emergencies when its service in the territory famed for the Rock of Gibraltar is complete.

But when it comes to its permanent power plants, EI will build a facility for a client looking to generate its own power or construct a plant, run it and sell power directly to the final user.

“We can do all the work ourselves. We have all the skills in house — finance, design, operations, maintenance, building and the equipment,’’ said Hall.

Energy International moved into the Middle East last year, completing projects in Oman and Yemen and establishing a subsidiary in Dubai to pursue business in Africa and the Middle East, said Molano.

“Africa is new to us, but we believe there are opportunities there,’’ he said.

The company also is looking for continued growth in Latin America, especially in Colombia, which is now attracting foreign investors who previously had been spooked by violence.

Remote areas of the Amazon where temporary power solutions are needed also represent opportunity for the company.

“EI is very fortunate to be in a position in which we have more excellent opportunities than capital.’’ said Hall, so this year it will be concentrating on raising equity to finance growth.

“One of our biggest challenges in 2013,’’ Hall said, “will be to find investors or joint venture partners to provide capital that will enable EI to perform these projects so our aggressive revenue growth targets can be achieved.’’

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Miami police to buyback guns — no questions asked

In efforts to reduce gun violence, Miami police will hold its first 2013 gun buyback operation of the year.

Beginning on Jan. 19, anyone can drop off any firearm at designated locations and receive a gift certificate with no questions asked.

“We are urging the public to join us in the efforts to reduce gun violence and make a difference,” the police department said in a news release.

The buybacks will be from 10 a .m. to 2 p.m. at the following locations:

• Jan. 19 - Model City NET, Jordan Grove Baptist Church, 5946 NW 12th Ave.

• Jan. 26 - Overtown NET, St. John Baptist Church, 1328 NW Third Ave.

• Feb. 2 - Little Havana NET, San Juan Bosco Catholic Church, 1301 W. Flagler St.

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The next CIA’s director’s challenges

qWhat John Brennan faces after confirmation

I see no reason why the Senate won’t confirm John Brennan, President Obama‘s chief counter-terrorism adviser, to be the next director of the CIA. There will be pro forma inquiries into his past entanglements with the NSA’s domestic surveillance program and his knowledge and approval of the CIA’s “Greystone” torture protocols, but he will have ready answers for the questions and he will say plenty in private to sooth the concerns of those whose concerns need to be soothed.

Assuming Brennan becomes the DCIA, as he will thenceforth be acronymed, he’ll inherit a powerful spy agency facing a set of tough questions. Actually, every CIA director since the advent of the age of Al Qaeda has more or less dealt with these same issues. The daily demands of the job require tactical thinking and leave little room for attention to the bigger picture.

SEE MORE: Why Django is better than Lincoln

# Is the CIA a paramilitary force? Should it go back to its roots as a source of intelligence and warning?  You see this question phrased as such a lot, but it ignores virtually all of the CIA’s history, except for a period in the 1990s when the “Peace Dividend” and director John Deutch pulled back significantly on the agency’s ambit. The CIA has always been both and will always be both. From the start, the agency has very broadly and probably (in an affront to the original understanding of the National Security Act of 1947) interpreted its mandate to do stuff to further American interests abroad, even and often to the point of violence, as Adam Elkus reminds us today. The question really is one of authorities and chains of command: how are American resources properly allocated? Are the mechanisms of accountability sufficient? Is there really anything better than an ad hoc framework for determining whether combined CIA-military operations are really CIA operations or military operations?

# There is no such thing as secrecy anymore, at least not in the way that the CIA has understood the term. We live in an era of open source everything, which means that the agency’s crown jewels have very short lifespans and that public interest in what the CIA does is bound to increase exponentially. The agency has to figure out a posture on the New Secrecy that satisfies its mission while accepting the Open Source reality. Younger analysts have different expectations of how to gather and collect information and are less satisfied with the complicated and fairly broken traditional secrecy rules.

# Similarly, it is exceedingly difficult for would-be spies to come to the CIA without significant social media trails, and it is very hard for them to work in the world without leaving electromagnetic detritus for everyone to exploit and discover. How can the CIA’s case officers maintain their cover identities? Is the era of fully-fledged cover identities over? Will the CIA continue to rely (and over-rely) on foreign intelligence services for critical human intelligence operations? 

# The same Open Source world that hinders CIA secrecy also provides the agency with far more data than it ever imagined having. The CIA will never face a problem of not having enough intelligence. It will face the problem of having too much and not knowing what it has or how to use it.

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Behind the Scenes of PSY's 2013 Super Bowl Commercial

ET has your exclusive sneak peek at PSY's next big project!

Video: Stars Party Gangnam Style Backstage at AMAs

The Korean superstar will launch an out-of-this-world Super Bowl commercial Sunday, January 3, and we have your first look behind the scenes of the top-secret shoot this Wednesday.

Also tomorrow, inside Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey's American Idol feud! Plus, the deleted scene deemed too sexy for Twilight.

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Business briefs

Sac bonuses

SAC Capital is raising bonuses for portfolio managers by 3 percentage points to help retain employees as the feds’ insider-trading probe moves closer to Stevie Cohen’s $14 billion hedge fund.

Watch it!

Broker Cantor Fitzgerald faces a possible credit downgrade from its BBB rating, Fitch Ratings said.

Curran caught

Mary Curran, an ex- UBS client, admitted to using Swiss bank accounts to hide more than $43 million in the largest individual offshore tax evasion case since a crackdown began in 2008.

Not so dreamy

Boeing shares slipped 2.6 percent to $74.13 after Japan Airlines had a Boeing Dreamliner towed back to a Boston airport gate when the jet leaked fuel while taxiing for takeoff to Tokyo, a day after a fire broke out on another 787 at the same airport.

Staying put

The city reached a tentative deal with the merchants who operate the Hunts Point Terminal Produce Market in The Bronx to extend their lease by 10 years, Crain’s New York Business reported.

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4 smartphones with standout features

These days, smartphones are almost all drawing from the same bag of tricks, and it can be hard to tell one from the next. If the average smartphone will do all the basic things you want it to, what does it take to be special? Here are four smartphones with unusual features that really make them stand out.

Nokia Lumia 920

Rating: 4 stars out of 5 (Excellent)

The good: This phone forges new Windows Phone ground with wireless-charging support and a highly sensitive screen you can use with gloves. Moreover, Nokia helps fill in Windows Phone OS gaps with a few missing features.

The bad: A thick, heavy build and slippery finish for some colors make the Lumia 920 harder to hold and carry, and the phone’s overhyped camera doesn’t have enough settings.

The cost: $99.99

The bottom line: Nokia’s Lumia 920 is heavy and thick, but if you want the most powerful, feature-rich Windows Phone smartphone available, this is it.

Samsung Galaxy Note 2

Rating: 4 stars out of 5 (Excellent)

The good: Oodles of screen real estate make this terrific for videos, games, and reading, and its improved stylus aids productivity. A blazing quad-core processor, a great camera and strong battery life round out the advantages of this Android 4.1 phone.

The bad: The huge display makes it unwieldy to carry, and hiccups in the S Pen stylus and apps can slow you down. The pricey Note 2 isn’t a suitable tablet replacement across all categories.

The cost: $149.99 to $309.99

The bottom line: Samsung delivers a powerful, boundary-pushing device that gets a lot right. Yet its complicated features and high price raise questions about its purpose.

Motorola Droid Razr Maxx HD

Rating: 4 stars out of 5 (Excellent)

The good: This Droid (Verizon) offers fast performance, a big, eye-popping screen and luxurious design. It also has great call quality, lots of storage, 4G data speeds, and unbeatable battery life.

The bad: The major weakness is a camera that produces subpar images. The phone is filled with Verizon bloatware as well.

The cost: $149.99 to $299.99

The bottom line: Motorola’s fast, stylish Droid Razr Maxx HD offers outstanding battery life, but its camera captures unimpressive images.

Samsung Galaxy Beam

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5 (Very good)

The good: An integrated pico projector, as well as a dual-core processor, 720p video capture and a 4-inch Super AMOLED screen.

The bad: The projection software needs some work, the 5-megapixel camera sometimes blurs indoor shots, and the Beam is thicker and heavier than many phones.

The cost: $474.49 to $839.99

The bottom line: Despite weak software, the Galaxy Beam’s bright projector pushes boundaries, and strong smartphone features make it a worthy standalone device.

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Parents of disabled kids blast Florida care

Twice in the past year, state health administrators cut the number of hours caregivers assisted Alex Perez’s severely disabled son at his Westchester home. Both times, the child’s pediatrician was left wondering why the state had reduced the care he had prescribed for the boy.

On Monday, state Rep. Katie Edwards asked Perez if she had been “misled or misinformed” when state healthcare bosses told her that the company that reviews such prescriptions always speaks with family doctors to find a way to help parents.

“Yes,” Perez told Edwards at a town hall meeting in Sunrise for parents of disabled and medically fragile children Monday night.

Perez, whose 13-year-old son, Christian, suffers from cerebral palsy and failure to thrive, was one of a dozen parents and advocates who spoke to several lawmakers and other community leaders Monday night at the meeting called to address the needs of Florida children with severe disabilities and life-threatening medical conditions.

As Perez looked on, Edwards, the meeting’s chairwoman, called a spokesman for the state Agency for Health Care Administration to the podium. AHCA legislative director Chris Chaney said it was common for the private company, eQHealth Solutions, to speak with family doctors to “reach a consensus” over the care for children like Christian.

“Not happening,” several parents shouted from the audience.

“You need to correct this,” Edwards said, speaking to Chaney.

Edwards, a Democrat from Sunrise who was recently elected to the House, called Monday’s meeting at the Sunrise Senior Center following several stories in The Miami Herald about the state’s cutting of in-home nursing care to medically fragile children, which has forced some parents to place their children in geriatric nursing homes. Edwards said she became aware of children like Christian while volunteering at, and raising money for, a Homestead daycare center for children with complex medical conditions.

“They keep finding new reasons to deny services,” Perez told the group about eQHealth, a private company under contract with the state at the center of the controversy. “It’s a very combative atmosphere.”

The plight of children with complex medical needs came to light last fall when civil-rights lawyers with the U.S. Justice Department accused the state of warehousing severely disabled children in geriatric nursing homes — where the youngsters often have little contact with the outside world, and can spend their entire childhood with no social or family interaction. Hundreds of children have landed in such homes, the Justice Department wrote, because state health administrators have dramatically cut in-home and other services to children whose parents care for them at home.

Edwards said it was partly the Legislature’s “fault” that disabled children were suffering from lack of care. For too long, she said, lawmakers avoided getting involved in the details of state health and social service agencies, allowing departments to write their own rules with little legislative guidance, and offering inadequate oversight over how the state’s “limited pool of resources” is spent.

If the state is favoring nursing homes by strangling the flow of dollars to families raising disabled children at home, though, Edwards said that should stop.

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