Barbra Streisand to sing at Oscars for first time in decades

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Actress, singer and director Barbra Streisand may be a familiar figure at Hollywood‘s Oscars, but she has only sung on the annual awards show once.

Streisand will perform again at the Academy Awards on February 24, producers said on Wednesday, without providing details about how her appearance would fit into the show or what she might sing.

Streisand, 70, has won two Oscars, one for best actress in “Funny Girl” and another for best original song, “Evergreen” from her 1976 vehicle “A Star Is Born.” Her performance of the song at the 1977 Oscars show was her only previous onstage stint at Hollywood’s biggest night.

“In an evening that celebrates the artistry of movies and music, how could the telecast be complete without Barbra Streisand?” producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron said in a statement. “We are honored that she has agreed to do a very special performance on this year’s Oscars.”

Streisand has also been nominated for several Oscars, including for best actress in “The Way We Were” and as producer for best picture nominee “The Prince of Tides.”

Most recently she co-starred with Seth Rogen in “The Guilt Trip,” a Christmas 2012 release.

Earlier this month, the Film Society of Lincoln Center announced that Streisand would be this year’s recipient of its annual Chaplin Award, a prestigious honor recognizing achievement in film.

The Oscars will be presented at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre, hosted by Seth MacFarlane and broadcast live on ABC as well as in more than 225 countries worldwide.

(Editing by Chris Michaud and Lisa Von Ahn)

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APNewsBreak: EPA moves to ban some rodent poisons

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency is moving to ban the sale of a dozen rat and mouse poisons sold under the popular D-Con brand in an effort to protect children and pets.

The agency said Wednesday it hopes to reduce the thousands of accidental exposures that occur every year from rodent-control products. Children and pets are at risk for exposure because the products typically are placed on floors.

The agency had targeted a handful of companies two years ago, saying they needed to develop new products that are safer for children, pets and wildlife. All but Reckitt Benckiser Inc., manufacturer of D-Con, did so.

The company will have at least 30 days to request a hearing before an administrative law judge. If no hearing is requested, the ban will take effect.

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'Entourage' crew to make leap to big-screen

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Vincent Chase and his entourage are jumping from the small screen to the big-screen.

Warner Bros. confirmed Wednesday that a film version of HBO's hit series "Entourage" is in the works.

Series creator Doug Ellin is writing and directing the film, which does not yet have a production start date or release date. The studio also has not finalized the cast.

"Entourage" ran for eight seasons and followed the Hollywood exploits of hot young actor Vince (Adrian Grenier) and his inner circle, including Kevin Connolly as his manager, Kevin Dillon as his half brother, Jerry Ferrara as an old neighborhood friend and Jeremy Piven as his slick super-agent.

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Airlines had earlier 787 battery issues

U.S. Transportation regulators are asking Boeing for a complete history of the lithium-ion batteries used on 787 Dreamliners. Battery problems have grounded all 50 787s in use around the world. (Jan. 30)

Boeing Co. said Wednesday that numerous replacements of potentially flammable lithium-ion batteries by airlines flying the new 787 Dreamliner were not made because of safety concerns.

"We have not seen 787 battery replacements occurring as a result of safety concerns," the company said in a statement. "Batteries are a replaceable unit on airplanes, regardless of the technology used."

The statement comes after All Nippon Airways Co. and Japan Airlines Co., Japan's two biggest airlines, said they had repeatedly replaced sub-par lithium-ion batteries on their Dreamliners in the months before the two incidents that led to the 787 groundings.

Boeing said: "The batteries are being returned because our robust protection scheme ensures that no battery that has been deeply discharged or improperly disconnected can be used. The third-highest category for battery returns is exceeding the battery shelf life -- this is a fact of life in dealing with batteries; they sometimes expire and must be returned."

Comments from All Nippon, the Boeing jetliner's biggest customer to date, and JAL pointed to reliability issues with the batteries long before one caught fire on a JAL 787 at Boston's airport and a second was badly charred and melted on an ANA domestic flight that was forced into an emergency landing.

ANA said it changed 10 batteries on its 787s last year, but did not inform accident investigators in the United States because the incidents, including five batteries that had unusually low charges, did not compromise the plane's safety, spokesman Ryosei Nomura said on Wednesday.

JAL also replaced batteries on the 787 “on a few occasions”, said spokeswoman Sze Hunn Yap, declining to be more specific on when units were replaced or whether these were reported to authorities.

ANA did, however, inform Boeing of the faults that began in May, and returned the batteries to their manufacturer, GS Yuasa Corp. A spokesman for the battery maker declined to comment on Wednesday. Shares of the company fell 1.2 percent.

Boeing spokesman Marc Birtel said the airplane maker could not comment as the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has indicated this is now part of their investigation.

LITTLE HEADWAY

The New York Times earlier quoted an NTSB spokeswoman as saying the agency would include these “numerous issues” with the 787 battery in its investigations.

Under aviation inspection rules, airlines are required to perform detailed battery inspections once every two years.

Officials are carrying out detailed tests on the batteries, chargers and monitoring units in Japan and the United States, but have so far made little headway in finding out what caused the battery failures.

Japan's transport ministry said the manufacturing process at the company which makes the 787 battery's monitoring unit did not appear to be linked to the problem on the ANA Dreamliner that made the emergency landing.

The NTSB said on Tuesday it was carrying out a microscopic investigation of the JAL 787 battery. Neither it nor the Japan Transport Safety Board has been able to say when they are likely to complete their work.

The global fleet of 50 Dreamliners - 17 of which are operated by ANA - remain grounded, increasing the likely financial impact to Boeing, which is still producing the aircraft but has stopped delivering them, and the airlines that fly the Dreamliner.

Boeing is due to report its latest quarterly earnings later on Wednesday, and ANA posts its earnings on Thursday. ANA shares rose 0.56 percent on Wednesday.
 

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3 charged with hate crime in St. Charles

Three St. Charles residents have been charged with a hate crime in connection with a violent attack on a group of people while taunting two men in the group for being gay.

Stephan C. Bolt, 31, of the 4N800 block of East Mary Lane; Christopher M. Miner, 30, of the 100 block of North 15th Street; and Susan V. Patton, 31, of the 6N200 block of Woodland Road, each are charged with two counts of felony hate crime.

They also face two counts of aggravated battery and one count of mob action. Bolt and Miner were also charged with four counts of misdemeanor battery, while Patton faces six counts of that offense.

Although police announced the charges Monday, the incident is alleged to have taken place in the early morning hours of Jan. 6 in the 2000 block of Lincoln Highway (Route 38). The three were eventually arrested late last week, police said. None was immediately available for comment Tuesday morning.

About 1:45 a.m., police were called to the scene outside a bar. Witnesses told police that shortly after closing time, Patton threw a drink in the face of a 26-year-old woman. That woman, who was with two male friends, then walked away and headed home, police said.

As the group of three walked across a parking lot, a grey Mazda pulled up to them and stopped, witnesses reported. Patton got out of the car and again confronted the woman, police said. When the woman's two male friends stepped in front of her, Patton struck them, police said.

Bolt and Miner then got out of the car and joined Patton in punching and kicking the two men, "while taunting them for being gay," police said. One of the men was able to call 911 on his cell phone, causing Patton, Bolt and Miner to get back in the car and drive away, police said.

Police said a fourth person was also present during the incident and could face charges as the investigation continues.

While Patton and Bolt are free from jail on $3,000 bond, Miner remains in custody. All are due in Kane County court next on Feb. 15.

kthayer@tribune.com

Twitter: @knthayer

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Microsoft launches new Office for consumers

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp launched its new Office software on Tuesday, featuring constantly updated, online access to documents from a range of devices as the world's largest software company attempts to tailor its most profitable product to a mobile generation.

The new Office suite of applications - including desktop staples Outlook email, Excel charts, Word and PowerPoint - marks the first overhaul since 2010 and aims to beat back growing competition from Google Inc's free online apps.

"The notion of an always up-to-date streaming version of Office comes directly from how people are using devices today," said Kurt DelBene, head of Microsoft's Office unit, in a phone interview. "You really want all your content to roam with you. We see that as an opportunity to deliver what customers are asking for."

The consumer-focused version of the new software, called Office 365 Home Premium, launched on Tuesday. After downloading the basic programs online, users can access the latest versions of all Office applications from up to five devices on a subscription basis for $100 a year.

The software will be updated online, marking a change from the past where users had to wait years for upgrades to installed software.

The new Office largely adopts the look of last year's Windows 8, with a cleaner, more modern-looking design and includes touch-screen capability.

The 'ribbons' showing commands in Word and Excel are mostly unchanged. For the first time the package includes online calling and video service Skype, which Microsoft bought in 2011.

Users' work can be stored in remote data centers - known as 'the cloud' - and the latest version of a document accessed from any licensed device with a browser that the user wants to work on.

GOOGLE KILLER

Two and a half years in the making, the new Office is designed to counter the growing popularity of Google Apps, a collection of online-only, Office-style applications Google provides free for home users and sells to businesses for $50 per user per year.

Microsoft is hoping its move into online services, alongside its new Surface tablets, pushes it back into the forefront of mobile computing, which has been led by Google's Android software and Apple's combination of slick hardware and apps.

"Today's launch of Office 365 Home Premium marks the next big step in Microsoft's transformation to a devices and services business," said Steve Ballmer, Microsoft chief executive, in a statement.

The new Office will run natively on Microsoft's own Surface tablets - both the 'RT' and Pro versions running on ARM Holdings and Intel Corp chips respectively - but it will not run natively on Apple's iPad, disappointing some iPad users who are also Office fans.

"We have not said that we will do rich client software on the iPad at this point," said DelBene, although he did not rule out producing such software in the future. "We've been very logical in our approach. I'm pleased with the software we have delivered for the iPad to date," he said.

Microsoft's SkyDrive online storage system and its OneNote note-taking software are available as iPad apps and iPad users can use limited Web versions of some Office applications.

The iPad issue has been a long-time quandary for Microsoft, which might gain more mobile users by making Office available on the iPad, but also removes a major incentive to buying its own competing Surface tablet.

The rollout of Office 365 for corporations, Microsoft's core market, has already started, but the new product will not be officially launched until February 27. The new Office applications have been available to large volume business customers since December.

Microsoft estimates that 1 billion people worldwide use some part of Office and the unit that produces Office is Microsoft's most profitable, edging out the flagship Windows division for the last few years. It now accounts for more than half of Microsoft's overall profit.

Sales dipped last quarter as consumers held off in anticipation of the new Office, but analysts expects sales to ramp up again this quarter.

"Microsoft has been criticized not only for pricing, but also for not innovating Office quickly and being slow to respond to the move to the Web or to mobile," said Michael Silver, an analyst at tech research firm Gartner. "Office 2013 addresses some of the criticisms, but Microsoft still has the power to maintain its pricing levels."

(Reporting By Bill Rigby; Editing by Matt Driskill)

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Report links A-Rod with PED use; MLB investigates

NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball said it is "extremely disappointed" about new allegations of performance-enhancing drug use against Alex Rodriguez and other players contained in a newspaper report.

The Miami New Times, a popular alternative weekly, said in a story Tuesday that it had obtained files through an employee at a recently closed clinic in south Florida that show Rodriguez purchased HGH and other substances.

"We are always extremely disappointed to learn of potential links between players and the use of performance-enhancing substances. ... Through our Department of Investigations, we have been actively involved in the issues in South Florida," MLB's statement said.

Rodriguez, the New York Yankees slugger currently recovering from hip surgery, has admitted using steroids from 2001-03 but insisted he stopped after that.

"We fully support the Commissioner's Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program. This matter is now in the hands of the Commissioner's Office," the Yankees said in a statement. "We will have no further comment until that investigation has concluded."

Other players named by the New Times as appearing in the records at Biogenesis include Melky Cabrera, Gio Gonzalez, Bartolo Colon and Nelson Cruz. Cabrera, the All-Star game MVP for the San Francisco Giants last season, was suspended 50 games in August for failing a drug test. The outfielder has signed with the Toronto Blue Jays as a free agent.

Colon, a pitcher for the Oakland A's, was also suspended 50 games in August.

Gonzalez, who went 21-8 for the Washington Nationals last season, and Cruz, who hit 24 home runs for the Texas Rangers, had not previously been linked to performance-enhancing drugs.

The Rangers said in a statement that after being contacted by the New Times late last week, they notified Major League Baseball. The club said it had no further comment.

Gonzalez posted on his Twitter feed: "I've never used performance enhancing drugs of any kind and I never will, I've never met or spoken with tony Bosch or used any substance."

The report said that the notes of clinic chief Anthony Bosch list the players' names and the substances they received, including human growth hormone and steroids. Several unidentified employees and clients confirmed to the publication that the clinic distributed the substances, the paper said. The employees said that Bosch bragged of supplying drugs to professional athletes but they never saw the sports stars in the office.

Any player found by MLB to use banned, performance-enhancing substances, is subject to suspension.

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Dior: Jennifer Lawrence dress had no malfunction

LOS ANGELES (AP) — That was no wardrobe malfunction — that was couture.

When Jennifer Lawrence ascended the stairs to accept her SAG Award Sunday night, a bit of skin showed through the skirt of her gown, leading to some speculation that it had ripped.

Dior Couture told The Associated Press that wasn’t so.

The design house said Lawrence’s gown was designed by Raf Simons “with different levels of tulle and satin.” That was what viewers saw on television when she lifted her gown to walk upstairs.

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Soldier looks forward to driving with new arms

BALTIMORE (AP) — A soldier who lost all four limbs in a roadside bombing in Iraq says he's looking forward to driving and swimming with new arms after undergoing a double-arm transplant.

"I just want to get the most out of these arms, and just as goals come up, knock them down and take it absolutely as far as I can," Brendan Marrocco said Tuesday.

The 26-year-old New Yorker spoke at a news conference at Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he was joined by surgeons who performed the operation.

After he was wounded, Marrocco said, he felt fine using prosthetic legs, but he hated not having arms.

"You talk with your hands, you do everything with your hands, basically, and when you don't have that, you're kind of lost for a while," he said.

Marrocco said his chief desire is to drive the black Dodge Charger that's been sitting in his garage for three years.

"I used to love to drive," he said. "I'm really looking forward to just getting back to that, and just becoming an athlete again."

Although he doesn't expect to excel at soccer, his favorite sport, Marrocco said he'd like to swim and compete in a marathon using a handcycle.

Marrocco joked that military service members sometimes regard themselves as poorly paid professional athletes. His good humor and optimism are among the qualities doctors cited as signs he will recover much of his arm and hand use in two to three years.

"He's a young man with a tremendous amount of hope, and he's stubborn — stubborn in a good way," said Dr. Jaimie Shores, the hospital's clinical director of hand transplantation. "I think the sky's the limit."

Shores said Marrocco has already been trying to use his hands, although he lacks feeling in the fingers, and he's eager to do more as the slow-growing nerves and muscles mend.

"I suspect that he will be using his hands for just about everything as we let him start trying to do more and more. Right now, we're the ones really kind of holding him back at this point," Shores said.

The procedure was only the seventh double-hand or double-arm transplant ever done in the United States.

The infantryman was injured by a roadside bomb in 2009. He is the first soldier to survive losing all four limbs in the Iraq War.

Marrocco also received bone marrow from the same donor to minimize the medicine needed to prevent rejection. He said he didn't know much about the donor but "I'm humbled by their gift."

The 13-hour operation on Dec. 18 was led by Dr. W.P. Andrew Lee, plastic surgery chief at Hopkins.

Marrocco was being released from the hospital Tuesday but will receive intensive therapy for two years at Hopkins and then at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda.

After a major surgery, human nerves regenerate at a rate of an inch per month, Lee said.

"The progress will be slow, but the outcome will be rewarding," he added.

___

Associated Press Writer David Dishneau contributed to this story from Hagerstown, Md.

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Dior: Jennifer Lawrence dress had no malfunction

LOS ANGELES (AP) — That was no wardrobe malfunction — that was couture.

When Jennifer Lawrence ascended the stairs to accept her SAG Award Sunday night, a bit of skin showed through the skirt of her gown, leading to some speculation that it had ripped.

Dior Couture told The Associated Press that wasn't so.

The design house said Lawrence's gown was designed by Raf Simons "with different levels of tulle and satin." That was what viewers saw on television when she lifted her gown to walk upstairs.

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