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BBM is by far the most compelling wireless experience and wireless social-networking environment,Lazaridis said. Not only is BlackBerry back in a big way with BB10, [Heins is] also showing he can expand that vision to other platforms.

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The free service is currently used by 60 million BlackBerry customers who send and receive more than 10 million messages a day, but it has experienced . BBM used to be one of the companys main selling points for its BlackBerry smartphones, and is perhaps one of the few remaining draws for the handsets.

BBMfor iPhones running iOS 6 or higher and Android smartphones sometime this summer.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Award-winning author James Salter, who completed his last full-length book more than 30 years ago, has released a new novel that chronicles a life drawn from many of his own experiences.

Like Salter, the main character in "All That Is" leaves the military to embark on a literary career. Unlike Salter, Philip Bowman becomes an editor after failing to find work as a writer.

Salter is considered by many one of the best postwar American novelists and short-story writers. His books include "The Hunters," "Burning the Days" and "Dusk and Other Stories," for which he won the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1989.

The new book spans several decades and explores Bowman's fleeting personal relationships in a bygone era of independent, clubby publishing houses.

The 87-year-old Salter spoke to Reuters about that literary world, why he wrote the book and his writing process.

Q: How did you come up with the title and what does it signify?

A: It has two meanings and they're not the same meaning but they overlap. One is all that is to life, and the other is all that is in life. They're not exactly the same thing, but I think your understanding shifts between the two without recognizing that they're shifting. Maybe that is the way it is designed, and to the reader, that doesn't make any sense, but that is how it is meant.

Q: Given how much time has passed since your last full-length novel, what made you want to finish it now?

A: I was writing other things ... There was no professional reason. I became interested in it through editors that I knew. In the beginning, I didn't know any editors. My first book was published without any editorial advice. Nobody said you might do this or that, or why don't we see more of this. I merely took the book and published it.

It was not until I began to write a book called "Light Years" that an editor really stepped in. The editor was Joe Fox at Random House and he wound up editing a subsequent book. I got to know him very well personally as well as professionally. And through another editor after him, Robert Gay, I became gradually more interested in their lives and that world of publishing.

They are involved in leisurely things like reading books, having lunch with writers and agents - it is all really beautiful and so I thought I would write something about all of this.

Q: Can you describe the writing process behind this novel?

A: I did spend a lot of time pre-writing. I have three big notebooks as thick as your little finger filled with notes about what might be in this book - people, places, and things. It took a long time to write those and then I was paring away.

Q: The main protagonist, Philip Bowman, has very few serious attachments, whether in material possessions or relationships. What do you hope readers learn from his character?

A: No lesson but I hope they read it with pleasure. The book is the journey of a life. I suppose if you search in it as you do at the end of a course in college, you can come up with several questions. Did he learn from experience? Was he emotionally stunted? Is this an example of the moral degeneration of an era?

None of these questions is that relevant. You are not going to get an answer from the book - the book is what it is. It is meant in a way to give you some idea of the life of an editor in a publishing house - in my view, a very favorable idea. I think it is an admirable and interesting life, and being an editor can be potentially deeply satisfying.

Q: The book finishes without a definitive conclusion. How should readers think about the end of the book?

A: With the last female relationship, he says and thinks certain things regarding her. That, to me, seems to make plain that he anticipates they are going to be together for a long time. The book does not say that precisely but it does say that he wondered if they didn't get married, would they stay together.

Could they possibly have a life such as people have in art? In art, by that, I mean painters and sculptors' lives - that life of art that is superior to ordinary mores and behavior. There are levels of art and writing and they live on a certain level that I think we instinctually envy. That is the level that he said perhaps they would live on.

There is so much implied in this book that if you don't read it with your openness to its implications rather than to its literal text, then I think you would miss what this book is about.

(Editing by Elaine Lies, Patricia Reaney and Matthew Lewis)

At least 100 pooches with owners in tow, holding leashes marched near the Louvre at a demonstration to demand more park space and access to public transportation for the four-legged friends.

Tongues and tails wagged Saturday under a warm Paris sun as collies, pugs, boxers, bulldogs, Labradors and other breeds paraded around the famed Paris museum.

Organizers of the canine-citizen march dubbed "My Dog, My City" estimates about 200,000 dogs live in Paris. They say other cities like New York, London, Montreal and Brussels offer more dog-oriented public spaces.

According to the city's Web site, two of Paris' 20 sections have only one reserved public park space for dogs. Leashes are required.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- State leaders stand ready to commit up to $15.4 million in taxpayer subsidies to a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company they hope will put an outpost in Minnesota, according to a document made public Wednesday.

After declining to provide details the day before, Gov. Mark Dayton's office released a February letter from the governor and top legislators to a site hunter for Baxter Healthcare Corp. The Deerfield, Ill.-based company is eyeing a property in Brooklyn Park, a Minneapolis suburb, for an expansion that could result in 200 good-paying jobs.

The initiative was dubbed "Project Fern" in the official communications, because the Dayton administration signed an agreement that barred it divulging Baxter's identity or interest in the state. That agreement was waived late Tuesday as questions began to swirl about the offering and the covert courtship. The process is raising concerns that the pressure to attract jobs is overwhelming transparency at the Capitol.

The letter from the state's political powers went to a Minneapolis consulting firm that is advising Baxter as it considers branching into Minnesota.

"We, leadership of the state of Minnesota, greatly value your investment and by receipt of this letter, state our commitment to pursuing the following special legislation for Project Fern during the 2013 legislative session," the letter reads. It goes on to list five programs the officials were prepared to tap to deliver tax exemptions, forgivable loans, per-job tax credits, working training grants and special assistance on road, sewer and water construction.

House Speaker Paul Thissen, a Minneapolis Democrat, has said he signed the letter without knowing the identity of the company or the full scope of its plans. Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk, a Democrat from Cook, said sensitivities involved in recruiting a large company makes the discretion understandable.

Baxter is a $14 billion-a-year company that makes devices and drugs to treat hemophilia, immune disorders, infectious diseases, kidney disease and other acute conditions. It recently bought a building vacated by another biotech company and is considering a two-phase expansion, which could add $300 million in space and equipment to the property and result in permanent jobs that would average $75,000 in base salary plus benefits.

Baxter could also qualify for city subsidies, making the public's commitment to the project even more.

Lawmakers had begun voting on the subsidies without knowing which company could land them. Some now say they are uncomfortable with the secrecy involving a request for taxpayer dollars.

Democratic Rep. Ryan Winkler, a Golden Valley Democrat, said he might have opposed a larger economic development package the House passed Monday if he knew what was transpiring privately. That bill contained $5 million in forgivable loans plus another $2 million incentive based on the number of jobs the company adds to its Minnesota payroll.

"It's a problem that we didn't know and weren't told what the subsidy deal was because most of these are not very good, and without some public scrutiny, we just start throwing money around in an even more egregious fashion than we typically do with these kind of subsidies," Winkler said.

Winkler said the state appears to be bowing too readily to a company for the sake of attracting jobs. "It's a certain kind of desperation to agree to their confidentially terms when they're asking for the taxpayers to give them free money," he said.

Blake Chaffee, a spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, said the non-disclosure agreement was meant "to protect the business and their competitive interest in terms of proprietary information." He didn't have immediate information on how often such agreements are used, but he stressed that the incentives themselves are subject to public disclosure and examination.

Rep. Kurt Zellers, a former Republican House speaker, said the way this deal played out could come back to haunt state leaders if Baxter wins its subsidies. He predicted more companies and their search firms will insist on non-disclosure agreements that prevent a full public vetting of their requests.

"It's a new precedent for those that do these searches for these companies," Zellers said. "If you go to Minnesota that's what you do."

For instance, in the movie "After Earth," opening in theaters Friday (May 31), a series of earthquakes, floods, tsunamis and other natural disasters makes the planet inhospitable to humans, who resettle on a new world called Nova Prime.

But although the movie may be pure fantasy, many scientists are worried about other perilous scenarios some of which are even scarier than anything that's been depicted on the silver screen.

From pandemic fungus to robot insurrection, here are 9 apocalyptic visions that scientists foresee. []

1. Global warming

The mother of all apocalyptic fears, climate change is the biggest threat facing the planet, many scientists say. Climate change could make extreme weather more severe, increase droughts in some areas, change the distribution of animals and diseases across the globe, and cause low-lying areas of the planet to be submerged in the wake of rising sea levels. The cascade of changes could lead to political instability, severe drought, famine, ecosystem collapse and other changes that make Earth a decidedly inhospitable place to live.

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According to Canalys, Apples share of the global smartphone market will drop from 19.5% in 2012 to 14.1% in 2017, representing somewhere over 200 million smartphones. Meanwhile,smartphone market share will balloon to 12.7% in 2017, up from just 2.4% in 2012.

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BlackBerry is predicted to see its share slide to 4.6% in 2017 from 4.8% last year, but that figure would be music to BlackBerrys ears a 4.6% share of the smartphone market in 2017 would representnearly 70 million smartphones according to Canalys estimates.

The firms full press release follows below.

Over 1 billion Android-based smart phones to ship in 2017

- 1.5 billion total smart phones to ship, accounting for 73% of all mobile phone shipments

Shanghai, Palo Alto, Singapore and Reading Tuesday, 4 June 2013

Worldwide, 1.5 billion smart phones will ship in 2017, according to the latest country level forecasts from Canalys, to account for 73% of all mobile phone shipments. In North America and Western Europe, virtually all phones shipped will be smart phones. Even in Greater China, smart phones will represent 95% of all mobile phone shipments in 2017.

The price of smart phones has fallen dramatically over the last few years and this has helped increase penetration, said Chris Jones, Canalys Principal Analyst. But, so far, the problem with low-cost smart phones has been that the user experience has been compromised to hit lower price points. This is why Nokia has been so successful with its Asha portfolio. These handsets have been purpose-built and provide a great pseudo-smart phone experience. But the situation will change over the next few years. As component prices continue to fall, vendors will be able to deliver great experiences on smart phones at low price points, which means that in many markets, feature phones will become extinct.

The smart phone market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18%, while mobile phone shipments will decline by a CAGR of 9% over the same period. Growth in the smart phone market will continue to be driven by Android. In 2012, over 470 million Android-based smart phones shipped and by 2017 this number will have more than doubled to over 1 billion, giving the platform a 67.1% market share. Over the same period, it is forecast that Apples shipments will continue to grow, but at a slower rate than the total smart phone market and hence its market share will fall from 19.5% in 2012 to 14.1% in 2017. Apples growth will be curtailed by the fact that momentum in the smart phone market is coming from the low end, and Apple is absent from this segment, said Jessica Kwee, Canalys Analyst. Androids continued dominance is due to the scalability of the platform.

In contrast to Apple, Microsofts market share is forecast to grow from 2.4% to 12.7% over the same period. The scalability of Microsofts platform will be critical to its success and it has made progress here by enabling Huawei and Nokia to deliver Windows Phone products at aggressive price points, said Kwee. Nokia is the most active vendor in the Microsoft camp and it continues to make steady progress with its Lumia portfolio. It has had some major carrier wins recently in the two largest markets of China and the US, which will help it build momentum in the short term. But longer-term it is the Chinese vendors that are best placed to challenge Samsungs market dominance. Microsoft already has a relationship with Huawei and ZTE in the phone space, and Lenovo is a major partner in the PC space. These partners will be needed to help deliver the scale that Microsoft needs.

The outlook for BlackBerry remains positive. Though its market share will remain stable over the forecast period, in real terms its shipments are expected to more than double. But for this to happen, it needs to phase out BlackBerry 7 devices quickly and add BlackBerry 10 devices across a range of price points. In addition, BlackBerry needs to urgently reverse its fortunes in the US and focus on growing its presence in China, as without these markets it will struggle to hit the projected shipment numbers.

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The suspect, a local businessman, was to be produced in court later Wednesday, according to a police official who declined to be identified because he wasn't authorized to speak to reporters.

The man attended a party the woman hosted to celebrate her 21st birthday on Friday, the official said. The woman told police that she later went to the man's house, where she drank a cup of tea and passed out, and then was raped.

Few other details were immediately available.

The reported assault comes as other attacks against women have heightened concerns about sexual violence in India.

On Tuesday, police reported that an American tourist was gang-raped in the northern Indian resort town of Manali. Three men picked her up in a truck while she was hitchhiking, then drove to a secluded spot and raped her, police officer Sher Singh said.

On Wednesday, another police official in Manali, Neel Chand, said three men were detained on the basis of the description the American woman provided but were later released after the victim said they were not her attackers.

"The only clue the victim provided the police is the color of the truck and a cracked windshield, which may not be accurate because it was at night and the light was very dim. So there still is nothing conclusive in this case," Chand said.

In March, six men were arrested in the gang-rape of a Swiss cyclist, and a British hotel guest jumped from a third-floor window fearing a sexual attack when the hotel owner tried to force his way into her room.

The fatal gang-rape of an Indian student on a bus in New Delhi in December sparked protests demanding better protection for women. In response, the government passed a law increasing prison terms for rape and making voyeurism, stalking, acid attacks and the trafficking of women punishable under criminal law.

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Associated Press writer Chonchui Ngashangva in New Delhi contributed to this story.

The fictional 30-something Londoner, who sprang from Fielding's newspaper column in the 1990s to become a popular novel and film franchise, is a little older in her latest outing and grappling with the cringe-making challenges of social media.

In the book, she laments the nightmare of drunken texting, skinny jeans and the fact she has no Twitter followers.

"Do not text when drunk," Jones says in an excerpt from the new novel released on Twitter and Facebook this week. "A text is gone at the brush of a fingertip, like a nuclear bomb or Exocet missile."

No more details on the plot of the new novel have been made public.

"Bridget Jones's Diary" came out in 1996, and was followed by a sequel, "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason," in 1999. The two novels sold more than 15 million copies worldwide.

The character's bumbling appeal carried over into two films starring Rene Zellweger as Bridget, alongside Hugh Grant and Colin Firth, and spawned a genre of revelatory columns, books, television shows and films.

The new novel will also be published as an e-book and audiobook, according to Jonathan Cape, a part of the Random House publishing company.

(Reporting by Paul Casciato; editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Jesse Eisenberg may be best known for his Oscar-nominated performance as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, but in his latest film, the fast-talking actor explores the underground world of magic for comedy heist caper, "Now You See Me."

The film, out in theaters on Friday, sees a group of street magicians come together as the "four horsemen," staging large scale magic shows during which they rob a bank and distribute the money among the audience.

Eisenberg plays silver-tongued sleight-of-hand expert J. Daniel Atlas, a role he said he was drawn to because of the character's confidence and his own need to overcome stage fright in 2011 while performing in an off Broadway production called "Asuncion," which he had also written.

"I thought it'd be like a perfect challenge for me, and maybe help me deal with some of the stage fright I was dealing with. My character is the greatest magician in the world and he has an attitude of someone who's earned that, so I forced myself to feel and behave like him," the actor explained.

In the film, which co-stars Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Mark Ruffalo, Eisenberg joins forces with three other street magicians, played by Isla Fisher, Woody Harrelson and Dave Franco, to stage a complex and captivating series of shows.

Eisenberg, who said he had never encountered a street magician before this film, had just four weeks to learn the basics of sleight-of-hand magic, and drew inspiration for his character from illusionists David Blaine and David Copperfield.

"David Blaine was so casual and Louis (Leterrier, the director) said he didn't want my character to be that casual, he wanted an edge of severity. I looked at David Copperfield, who is very severe and dramatic and flamboyant in his performance. Somewhere between those two guys is my character," he said.

Debunking magic is one of the many facets of the film's plot, and while learning the secrets of the illusion trade, Eisenberg said he still had concerns that the audience would not be so easily tricked or misdirected.

"I initially thought when I was performing a trick to somebody, the whole time they'd be trying to figure it out and frustrated that they don't know how it's done. So I'd start to reveal how it was done, and I was surprised to find out that they were kind of disappointed," the actor said.

"I think they wanted to feel amazed and that something like (magic) is possible, even though you know it's not."

OSCARS AND OFF BROADWAY

Eisenberg, a native of New Jersey, has been a regular fixture on the independent film circuit in recent years, making his debut in the critically praised 2002 dark comedy "Roger Dodger" and gaining attention in 2009 for comedies "Adventureland" and "Zombieland."

More recently, the actor has starred in Woody Allen's 2012 film "To Rome With Love" and 2011 animated feature "Rio," reprising his role as Blu the exotic bird for "Rio 2" in 2014.

But while his role as sharp-witted Facebook co-founder Zuckerberg in 2010's "The Social Network" thrust Eisenberg in front of a mainstream audience and earned him an Oscar nomination, the actor said he never watches his own films.

"I won't see them, but I hope they're good. I just feel the experience of watching it is so different from the experience of doing it," the actor said.

Off camera, Eisenberg is fast becoming a recognizable force in New York's theater world as both an actor and playwright. He most recently starred opposite veteran actress Vanessa Redgrave in off-Broadway play "The Revisionist," which he also wrote.

"(Film) is an industry driven so much more by an economy whereas stage, I get to write what I want to write. Notes that I get from producers are about making the play more of what it wants to be rather than making it more accessible," he said.

(Editing by Patricia Reaney and Doina Chiacu)

A Tuesday news release says the musician-actor will release "Magnificent Vibration" in May 2014 on the Simon & Schuster imprint Touchstone.

Springfield is best known as the multi-platinum "Jessie's Girl" singer and "General Hospital" star, but his memoir "Late, Late at Night" was a surprise New York Times best-seller. He said in the statement the experience "reminded me how much I love the craft."

Springfield's novel is about a tough-times protagonist who receives a 1-800 phone connection with God through a self-help book. The book comes during a busy period for the musician. He recently participated in Dave Grohl's "Sound City" documentary and album and appeared on "Californication" and "Hawaii Five-O."

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Online:

http://rickspringfield.com