RIM stock rises after Goldman Sachs upgrade

TORONTO (AP) — Research In Motion rose Thursday after Goldman Sachs upgraded the phone maker’s shares, saying there’s a “30 percent chance” RIM‘s much-delayed BlackBerry 10 smartphones will be a success.

THE SPARK: Goldman Sachs analyst Simona Jankowski lifted RIM to “Buy” from “Neutral,” the latest analyst to voice a slightly more optimistic view for the troubled company. Goldman lifted its 12-month price target to $ 16 from $ 9.

THE BIG PICTURE: RIM was once Canada’s most valuable company, with a market value of more than $ 80 billion in 2008, but shares have sunk due to ground lost to Apple Inc.‘s iPhone and phones running Google Inc.‘s Android system.

Now the company’s new BlackBerrys, expected sometime after Jan. 30, are considered critical to its survival. The new system includes a touch screen and the apps experience that customers now expect.

THE ANALYSIS: Jankowski noted positive early reviews for the new operating system and broad-based support by carriers who are looking to sell a third operating system beyond Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS.

She predicted that RIM will become profitable in the year ending in February 2014. Analysts polled by FactSet expect a loss. Still, she expects RIM to revert to a loss the next year.

Last week, National Bank Financial Kris Thompson increased his price target to $ 15 from $ 12, while Jefferies analyst Peter Misek doubled his price target from $ 5 to $ 10, saying the BlackBerry 10 operating system has a 20 to 30 percent chance of succeeding.

SHARE ACTION: Shares of Research In Motion added 67 cents, or 6.4 percent, to $ 11.77 in midday trading on the Nasdaq. The stock is up 78 percent since late September — but it’s down 23 percent this year through Wednesday’s close, and has lost more than 90 percent from its 2008 high.

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Mayim Bialik files to end 9-year marriage in LA

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Court records show Mayim Bialik filed for divorce from her husband of nine years on the same day she announced the couple’s split in a blog post.

She cited irreconcilable differences with husband Michael Stone in the documents filed Nov. 21 in Los Angeles.

Bialik currently stars on the CBS comedy “The Big Bang Theory” and rose to fame as the star of the TV show “Blossom.”

She has been a proponent of “attachment parenting” and the former couple have two sons together, ages 7 and 4. Bialik has said their parenting style was not a factor in the divorce and she is seeking joint custody of the children.

The 36-year-old wrote in her post last week that the divorce is “terribly sad, painful and incomprehensible” for children.

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Kenya village of AIDS orphans hangs hopes on trees

NYUMBANI, Kenya (AP) — There are no middle-aged adults in the Kenyan village of Nyumbani. They all died years ago. Only the young and old live here.

The 938 children here all saw their parents die. The 97 grandparents saw their middle-aged children die. But put together, the bookend generations take care of one another.

UNAIDS says that as of 2011 an estimated 23.5 million people living with HIV resided in sub-Saharan Africa, representing 69 percent of the global HIV burden. Eastern and southern Africa are the hardest-hit regions.

Saturday is World AIDS Day.

Nyumbani is currently planting tens of thousands of trees for the fourth straight year in the hopes that the village will soon harvest the hardwood and become self-sustaining.

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African Union asks UN for immediate action on Mali

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — In an open letter Thursday to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the president of the African Union urged the U.N. to take immediate military action in northern Mali, which was seized by al-Qaida-linked rebels earlier this year.

Yayi Boni, the president of Benin who is also head of the African Union, said any reticence on the part of the U.N. will be interpreted as a sign of weakness by the terrorists now operating in Mali. The AU is waiting for the U.N. to sign off on a military plan to take back the occupied territory, and the Security Council is expected to discuss it in coming days.

In a report to the Security Council late Wednesday, Ban said the AU plan “needs to be developed further” because fundamental questions on how the force will be led, trained and equipped. Ban acknowledged that with each day, al-Qaida-linked fighters were becoming further entrenched in northern Mali, but he cautioned that a botched military operation could result in human rights abuses.

The sprawling African nation of Mali, once an example of a stable democracy, fell apart in March following a coup by junior officers. In the uncertainty that ensued, rebels including at least three groups with ties to al-Qaida, grabbed control of the nation’s distant north. The Islamists now control an area the size of France or Texas, an enormous triangle of land that includes borders with Mauritania, Algeria and Niger.

Two weeks ago, the African Union asked the U.N. to endorse a military intervention to free northern Mali, calling for 3,300 African soldiers to be deployed for one year. A U.S.-based counterterrorism official who saw the military plan said it was “amateurish” and had “huge, gaping holes.” The official insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the matter.

Boni, in his letter, said Africa was counting on the U.N. to take decisive action.

“I need to tell you with how much impatience the African continent is awaiting a strong message from the international community regarding the resolution of the crisis in Mali. … What we need to avoid is the impression that we are lacking in resolve in the face of these determined terrorists,” he said.

The most feared group in northern Mali is al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, al-Qaida’s North African branch, which is holding at least seven French hostages, including a 61-year-old man kidnapped last week.

On Thursday, SITE Intelligence published a transcript of a recently released interview with AQIM leader, Abu Musab Abdul Wadud, in which he urges Malians to reject any foreign intervention in their country. He warned French President Francois Hollande that he was “digging the graves” of the French hostages by pushing for an intervention.

Also on Thursday, Islamists meted out the latest Shariah punishment in northern city of Timbuktu. Six young men and women were each given 100 lashes for having talked to each other on city streets, witnesses said.

___

Associated Press writer Virgile Ahissou in Cotonou, Benin and Baba Ahmed in Bamako, Mali contributed to this report.

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Amazon’s Robotic Future: A Work in Progress

If you were watching Bloomberg TV recently, you may have seen our correspondent, Cory Johnson, standing in the middle of Amazon’s (AMZN) newest distribution center in Arizona. It’s an impressive facility, brand-new and owned by one of the hardest-charging, most-innovative companies to come onto the retail scene since Sam Walton opened a five-and-dime.

So where are the robots?

After all, aren’t robots supposed to be the future of such places as distribution centers and warehouses? Didn’t Amazon buy a robot manufacturer, Kiva, in March? The online retailer announced in October that it was taking on 50,000 additional part-time workers for the holiday season. Shouldn’t some of those spots be taken up by mechanical arms and wheels?

Maybe not. For all the anxiety over robots coming to take jobs, there are still limitations to what they can do—or what they can do well. Bruce Welty is chief executive officer of Quiet Logistics, an order-fulfillment company that manages the online inventory and distribution for retailers like Gilt, Zara, and Bonobos. He uses robots made by Kiva, the company Amazon purchased, but his warehouse in Massachusetts is not bereft of humans. “Robots aren’t very good at picking up things,” he says. “They aren’t very good at looking at a bin of different things and distinguishing one item from another.”

Welty’s robots do one task and one task only: They move racks of merchandise to workers, who then remove the products from the racks and pack them up for shipping. Saving workers the time and effort to retrieve products offers considerable benefit. “In a typical warehouse, that’s about 60 to 70 percent of the labor,” Welty says.

In addition to what the current state of robotic arts does well, there are further reasons for the continued presence of human beings in warehouses. Labor flexibility is one of the larger ones. “Automation won’t help Amazon in periods of peak demand,” says Stephen Graves, a professor of management science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “People are far more flexible.”

The capital expense to add robots means they need to make sense 12 months out of the year, not two. “The only way to handle spikes in demand is by adding temporary workers,” says Jim Tompkins, CEO of supply-chain consultancy Tompkins International. “If you bought a whole bunch of robots to handle the holiday shopping season, you’d have a whole bunch of robots looking at you, come January.”

So if Amazon just spent nearly a billion dollars buying Kiva, but the robots they produce can’t make a huge difference in how the company operates, what are Amazon’s intentions?

For starters, it’s still early. An acquisition like that of Kiva will take a while to digest, during which time new applications for the robots will surely be devised. “They’re really in a test mode,” says Welty. “They’re going to work on getting it right before any major rollout.”

The Kiva acquisition may have had as much to do with software as it does with hardware, adds Tompkins. “Mechanically, there’s nothing that special about Kiva,” he says. “But what they do have is software that makes sure the robots are in the right place at the right time. This was a software play.”

That’s not exactly how most people would view the deal. But it may be just the head-fake that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos intended. “I bet Jeff Bezos loves that people are running around trying to put more robots in their distribution centers,” Tompkins says.

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Past hosts teaming for Spike Video Game Awards

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Spike Video Game Awards are assembling past hosts.

The cable network announced Thursday that the gaming extravaganza’s previous emcees would join “The Avengers” star and four-time VGAs host Samuel L. Jackson at next week’s show.

Previous hosts Zachary Levi, Snoop Lion, Jack Black and Neil Patrick Harris are set to appear at the 10th annual ceremony.

The show will also feature debut footage from upcoming games “BioShock Infinite,” ”Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2″ and “Tomb Raider,” and from downloadable content “Spartan Ops” for “Halo 4″ and “The Tyranny of King Washington” for “Assassin’s Creed III.”

“Assassin’s Creed III,” ”Dishonored,” ”Journey,” ”Mass Effect 3″ and “The Walking Dead: The Game” are vying for the best game trophy.

The VGAs will air live on Spike on Dec. 7 from Sony Picture Studios in Culver City, Calif.

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Palm Springs Fest gives Robert Zemeckis’ awards campaign a boost

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Robert Zemeckis has been named Director of the Year by the Palm Springs International Film Festival, making the “Flight” director the latest awards hopeful to be honored by one of the two big January film festivals that double as campaign stops on the awards circuit.

The announcement by Palm Springs organizers came one day after the Santa Barbara Film Festival declared “Silver Linings Playbook” star Jennifer Lawrence the Outstanding Performer of the Year.

Palm Springs holds its awards gala on the first Saturday of the new year, which this year falls on January 5, two days after Oscar polls close. Santa Barbara spreads out its awards over a two-week period in late January, after Oscar nominations are announced but before final voting begins.

Both festivals jockey to assemble lineups of probable Oscar nominees, and both are lobbied by Oscar campaigners as they make their selections. The two festivals try to stagger their announcements so as not to compete with each other.

Besides Zemeckis’ award, Palm Springs has announced that it will honor Naomi Watts with the Desert Palm Achievement Award for Acting and Helen Hunt with the Spotlight Award.

In addition to Lawrence, Santa Barbara will give its Modern Master Award to Ben Affleck. Robert De Niro will receive the festival’s Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film, an honor that is presented at a separate black-tie event in December rather than during the festival.

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American Girl Dolls Embrace Differences and Disabilities

Nov 29, 2012 7:00am

I must admit, I find American Girl Dolls slightly unnerving. They are so eerily lifelike, and I know it’s a cliché, but the eyes really do follow you everywhere. My daughter has one, and we put it in the closet every night because mommy is a little crazy.

Despite these misgivings, it’s hard not to cheer for a doll company that goes out of its way to represent girls from all walks of life and every circumstance. The new Special Sparkle section in its  holiday catalog includes a miniature service dog in harness, a hearing aid and an allergy-free lunch kit.

“We have a long history of speaking to diversity and making girls feel good about themselves, and this is just another way we are expanding on the idea,” said American Girl Doll spokeswoman  Julie Parks.

Whereas many dolls from high-end companies resemble a stereotypical beauty unattainable for most little girls, American Girl has always seemed to strive for all-inclusiveness. The dolls come in a vast selection of skin tones, hair color and eye color, which can be mixed and matched so the doll resembles its owner. Now they can also be fitted with glasses, braces for the teeth, crutches or a wheel chair, and the company recently began to offer dolls without hair to represent those who have lost hair to cancer.

American Girl books and movies also do a good job of highlighting problems girls are likely to encounter in life. This year’s “Doll of the Year” McKenna is a talented gymnast who struggles with injuries and a learning disability. In the book and movie about her experiences, Jesse, her brainy friend and tutor, is confined to a wheel chair.

 Dr. Ari Brown, a developmental pediatrician in Austin, Texas, applauds American Girl’s mission of highlighting differences and a message of acceptance.

 ”I think it’s great American Girl tries to have dolls that have the same hodgepodge of traits and features you actually see in kids,” Brown said.

Brown said she also believes playing with a doll that uses a hearing aid,  requires a special diet or depends on a service dog can be an enriching experience for all girls, even if they themselves don’t have special needs.

“It can help kids learn to be more accepting of others who are different from them,” she said.

Perhaps because acceptance  for all is part of American Girl’s  mission, it has been more successful than other toy makers that have  attempted to make dolls with disabilities. Barbie’s wheelchair-bound friend, Share a Smile Becky, is a notable example. Even consumers who overlooked the condescending name couldn’t forgive the fact that Becky’s chair didn’t fit into the Barbie Dream House elevator.

Girl Power aside, all this diversity might have a limited reach. The price tag for a doll is $ 105, and from there the cash register never seems to stop ringing. The wheel chair costs $ 38, the hearing aid $ 9 and the allergy-free lunch bag $ 28.  Let’s not even mention the hair styling, ear piercing and tea parties.

Yet in spite of the steep cost of ownership, Parks said feedback has been overwhelmingly positive for the dolls in general and the new disability accessories in particular.

“Parents realize they are investing in something that builds strong character and helps every girl reach their full potential, no matter who they are or what they look like,” she said. “It’s all about engaging them in positive experiences and helping them fit in.”

SHOWS: Good Morning America

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Stock futures gain ahead of data on fiscal hopes

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stock futures rose on Thursday, building on the previous session’s steep gains, on expectations of progress toward a fiscal agreement in Washington that would avert an economic meltdown.

Market participants will continue to focus on discussions in Congress to avoid big spending cuts and tax hikes – dubbed the “fiscal cliff” – and equities may retreat, as they did Tuesday, if the upbeat negotiation environment in Washington shifts.

“There will be a deal before December 31 to avert the economy facing disaster,” said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital in New York.

“We’re back on track for a year-end rally to continue,” he said, highlighting the continued support the Federal Reserve has given to equity markets.

Investors await data, including the second estimate of third-quarter gross domestic product, due at 8:30 a.m. ET (1330 GMT). Economists in a Reuters survey forecast a 2.8 percent annualized pace of growth, compared with a 2.0 percent rate in the first estimate.

The Commerce Department will issue preliminary corporate profits for the third quarter at 8:30 a.m. (1330 GMT). At the same time, the Labor Department will release first-time claims for jobless benefits; 390,000 new filings are forecast, compared with 410,000 in the prior week.

The yield on Italy’s 10-year bonds fell to the lowest in two years at an auction, amid relief that immediate risks over Greece had diminished.

“The fact that the bond sales in Europe went well suggest confidence is beginning to reenter some of the peripheral nations and that is a good sign,” Cardillo said.

The euro flirted with the $ 1.30 level and boosted commodity prices, which could lift the basic materials and energy stock sectors.

S&P 500 futures rose 9 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 78 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures added 17.5 points.

Also due for release Thursday are pending home sales for October at 10:00 a.m. (1500 GMT) and the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City November manufacturing survey at 11:00 a.m.

Tiffany shares fell 9 percent to $ 58.02 in premarket trading after the upscale jeweler reported quarterly results and lowered its full-year sales and profit forecasts.

U.S.-listed shares of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion soared 11.7 percent to $ 12.40 in premarket trading after Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to “buy” from “neutral.”

Kroger , the biggest U.S. supermarket operator, is due to report third-quarter earnings.

On Wednesday, the Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> rose 106.98 points, or 0.83 percent, to 12,985.11. The S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 10.99 points, or 0.79 percent, to 1,409.93. The Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 23.99 points, or 0.81 percent, to close at 2,991.78.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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Myanmar cracks down on mine protest; dozens hurt

MONYWA, Myanmar (AP) — Security forces used water cannons and other riot gear Thursday to clear protesters from a copper mine in in northwestern Myanmar, wounding villagers and Buddhist monks just hours before opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was to visit the area to hear their grievances.

The crackdown at the Letpadaung mine near the town of Monywa risks becoming a public relations and political fiasco for the reformist government of President Thein Sein, which has been touting its transition to democracy after almost five decades of repressive military rule.

The environmental and social damage allegedly produced by the mine has become a popular cause in activist circles, but was not yet a matter of broad public concern. However, hurting monks — as admired for their social activism as they are revered for their spiritual beliefs — is sure to antagonize many ordinary people, especially as Suu Kyi’s visit highlights the events.

“This is unacceptable,” said Ottama Thara, a 25-year-old monk who was at the protest. “This kind of violence should not happen under a government that says it is committed to democratic reforms.”

According to a nurse at a Monywa hospital, 27 monks and one other person were admitted with burns caused by some sort of projectile that released sparks or embers. Two of the monks with serious injuries were sent for treatment in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second biggest city, a 2 ½ hour drive away. Other evicted protesters gathered at a Buddhist temple about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the mine’s gates.

Lending further sympathy to the protesters’ cause is whom they are fighting against. The mining operation is a joint venture between a Chinese company and a holding company controlled by Myanmar’s military. Most people remain suspicious of the military, while China is widely seen as having propped up army rule for years, in addition to being an aggressive investor exploiting the country’s many natural resources.

Government officials had publicly stated that the protest risked scaring off foreign investment that is key to building the economy after decades of neglect.

State television had broadcast an announcement Tuesday night that ordered protesters to cease their occupation of the mine by midnight or face legal action. It said operations at the mine had been halted since Nov. 18, after protesters occupied the area.

Some villagers among a claimed 1,000 protesters left the six encampments they had at the mine after the order was issued. But others stayed through Wednesday, including about 100 monks.

Police moved in to disperse them early Thursday.

“Around 2:30 a.m. police announced they would give us five minutes to leave,” said protester Aung Myint Htway, a peanut farmer whose face and body were covered with black patches of burned skin. He said police fired water cannons first and then shot what he and others called flare guns.

“They fired black balls that exploded into fire sparks. They shot about six times. People ran away and they followed us,” he said, still writhing hours later from pain. “It’s very hot.”

Photos of the wounded monks showed they had sustained serious burns on parts of their bodies. It was unclear what sort of weapon caused them.

The protest is the latest major example of increased activism by citizens since the elected government took over last year. Political and economic liberalization under Thein Sein has won praise from Western governments, which have eased sanctions imposed on the previous military government because of its poor record on human and civil rights. However, the military still retains major influence over the government, and some critics fear that democratic gains could easily be rolled back.

In Myanmar’s main city of Yangon, six anti-mine activists who staged a small protest were detained Monday and Tuesday, said one of their colleagues, who asked not to be identified because he did not want to attract attention from the authorities.

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