Blue Suite 21

SAN FRANCISCO — Research In Motion (RIM) on Monday announced it is making Blackberry devices friendlier to game applications, as the business-oriented smartphones try to show a more playful side.

The Canada-based mobile phone maker is enhancing Blackberry software to make it simpler for outside developers to craft 3D games and other fun programs for the devices.

"We are making it easier than ever for developers, hobbyists and content providers to build graphic-rich experiences for BlackBerry smartphones," said RIM platform senior vice president Alan Brenner.

"These new features will help drive a multitude of engaging themes, games and applications for BlackBerry smartphone users."

The move comes as RIM faces competition from Apple iPhones and growing ranks of smartphones based on Google-backed Android software.

IPhones have become a hot platform for mobile videogames and Android software frees third-party developers to make programs for devices.

The sole survivor of a helicopter crash off the east coast of Newfoundland last spring has criticized the safety training passengers receive, the survival suits they wear when travelling offshore and the seating design of the helicopters.

Speaking for the first time since the March 12 crash of Cougar Flight 491 that killed 17 people, Robert Decker, 28, told his story Thursday in St. John's at an inquiry into offshore helicopter safety.

"I don't think that anyone will ever know why it is that I survived this disaster and the others did not," said Decker. "There is probably no good reason. Just luck. What I do know is that I came incredibly close to losing my life."

Decker gave a gripping account of how he escaped the sinking Sikorsky S-92A helicopter after it hit the ocean 55 kilometres southeast of St. John's.

He told the inquiry that he doesn't recall the moment of impact and that his first memory of the crash is of being trapped inside the sinking craft.

"The helicopter was sinking quickly, port side down. It was instantly filled with water… The next thing I did was reach for my seatbelt and I pulled myself out through the window," said Decker.

"I didn't know how deep the helicopter was at that time. I didn't know what was happening. I had my hands above my head and I could look up and I could see it was getting brighter and brighter and I guess eventually my arms broke the surface."

Problems with training, equipment

Decker said he wanted to speak at the inquiry to help it find ways to make offshore work safer. He suggested there are some real problems.

An avid sailor and sailing instructor, Decker said the training that all people who work offshore must complete before they are allowed to travel offshore isn't adequate.

"As good as the training is, a couple of days of controlled emergency training in a pool [are] not enough to allow anyone to develop the instinctive reaction to survive a crash like this," he told the inquiry.

Decker escaped the helicopter as it plummeted to the bottom of the ocean. He said that when he reached the surface, he had problems with his survival suit.

"I couldn't get the gloves on and even in the training in warm water when you have complete dexterity with your fingers, I think they're a little bit tricky to get on. And there is also a shield that you pull over from around the hood that kind of protects the spray from getting on your face and I wasn't able to access that, either," Decker said.

Decker also said the seating design in the Sikorsky S-92A is flawed. He said his experience shows that window seats are safer than the others.

"The chances of being able to escape from an overturned helicopter being on the inside seat would be next to impossible.… You would have to hold your breath and wait for the initial person who would be directly next to the window to get out and clear out of your way. Their feet are kicking.

"I just can't see how this person would ever stand a chance," said Decker.

In a prepared statement that he read at the inquiry, Decker said safe helicopters are the most important aspect of offshore transportation safety.

"Training to escape from a helicopter is important…. Having good survival suits is important and having search and rescue capacity nearby is important. But all those things are what you need after there has been a crash into the ocean," said Decker.

"If we really want to make offshore helicopter travel safe, what we have to do is make sure that every helicopter doesn't crash. The best way to keep every worker safe is to keep every helicopter in the air where it belongs. Safety starts with the helicopter and I think everything else is secondary."

The offshore helicopter safety inquiry was established by the Canada Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board after the crash. The CNLOPB regulates the province's offshore oil industry.

The inquiry led by commissioner Robert Wells, a retired Supreme Court Judge, is adjourned until Nov. 16.

OTTAWA — Canada's national eHealth project has received a generally clean bill of health from the auditor general, escaping the scathing attacks heaped on its cousins in Ontario and British Columbia.

But Sheila Fraser's report to Parliament on Tuesday nevertheless found a raft of contracting and reporting problems that have become endemic to the ambitious plan to ensure everyone in Canada eventually has an electronic health record rather than a paper one.

Canada Health Infoway Inc. has already received $1.6 billion in federal money since 2001. Another $500 million promised by the Conservative government last January has been put on hold while Health Canada carries out "due diligence" on whether the money will be spent wisely.

Fraser lauds the non-profit corporation for progress in the last eight years, including the difficult job of co-ordinating work with provinces and territories, each with their disparate medical systems.

Infoway has said it will ensure half the population has an electronic record by the end of 2010, and everyone will have one by 2016.

But Fraser pokes some holes in those promises, noting that just because an electronic record has been created does not necessarily mean it will be used.

"Infoway officials told us that having EHRs (electronic health records) 'available' does not necessarily mean that they are being used or that they are compatible across the country," says her report, which cites the corporation for failure to be transparent.

Fraser also says Infoway touted its success in creating electronic health records for 17 per cent of Canadians by March this year - without also acknowledging this was 11 percentage points short of its goal.

The report finds fault with the way Infoway hands out contracts. Contracts worth $50,000 or more must be awarded only after a competition, but there have been no restrictions on contract amendments.

Fraser cites the example of a $144,000 competitive contract that was amended five times, raising the total value to $726,000 - with no competition for the amended amounts.

"This practice is not conducive to the fair and transparent awarding of contracts and it raises questions about the appropriateness of Infoway's contracting policy."

The report also found that in a sample of 35 contracts, 13 were signed only after the work had begun.

Infoway says it accepts all of Fraser's recommendations about improving contracting and transparency, and says new rules will be in place by March next year.

"We're exercising due regard in managing taxpayers' money," Infoway's president and CEO, Richard Alvarez, said in an interview from the corporation's Toronto headquarters.

"We've embraced those recommendations. We've put several of them in place already and we will basically have the rest done by the end of the fiscal year."

A spokeswoman for Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said Tuesday the department welcomes the generally positive findings, but suggested the promised $500 million in additional funds will not be released soon.

"We need to ensure that money spent delivers value to taxpayers," said press secretary Josee Bellemare.

"That's why we will not release the Economic Action Plan investment in Infoway until we are satisfied that the money will be spent prudently and deliver results."

In previous reports to Parliament, Fraser complained she had not been given access to Infoway's books, but the legislation was changed in 2005 to allow her investigators through the door.

Recently Ontario's auditor general reported that eHealth Ontario had mismanaged $1 billion of taxpayer money, with little oversight. The RCMP is investigating the British Columbia counterpart.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Gabourey "Gabby" Sidibe is riding a once unthinkable trajectory of newcomer movie stardom that rivals any fairy tale.

She won the title role in the new film "Precious: Based on the novel 'Push' by Sapphire" with no serious training, and beat out hundreds of hopefuls in her first real audition.

The result is that she shines in scenes with stars like Mariah Carey and Lenny Kravitz. And her character, an obese abused teenage girl, tells an urban tale of despair and redemption that was never meant to make it to the big screen.

Opening in the United States on Friday November 6, "Precious" is now proving a winner with critics and audiences since it screened at the Sundance Film Festival in January, and Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry have signed on as executive producers.

"It's been almost nine months since we did Sundance with the film, so it's like being pregnant where everybody wants to rub your belly," Sidibe, a Harlem-raised 26-year-old, giggled about her experience in a recent interview.

Sidibe portrays Claireece "Precious" Jones, who is twice impregnated by her father and beaten by her mother who despite such a difficult upbringing, tries to find her way to a better life.

The tragic, sometimes comical and ultimately hopeful tale is based on a best-selling novel by New York poet Sapphire.

Before scoring the leading role in the film set in Harlem in 1987, Sidibe was a receptionist whose mother occasionally sang on New York's subway platforms. She attended local colleges and studied psychology.

Now she tours the world attending film festivals where the movie has won top prizes -- both the jury and audience awards at Sundance and the top award at the Toronto film festival. She gets standing ovations, poses for photo shoots and walks red carpets that may extend to the Oscars, award watchers say.

Sidibe says her favorite moment so far was taking her mother to the premiere of a movie by Tyler Perry.

"There were people taking pictures of me and interviews and I looked over to check on my mom because we are like that and she was beaming," said Sidibe, who is nicknamed "Gabby." "My mom is always proud of me, but it was a different face of pride."

SELF-BELIEF

During auditions, director Lee Daniels said he had narrowed down a list of girls whose real lives were not unlike the grim reality of the 16-year-old, 350-pound "Precious" before Sidibe came along and impressed Daniels with her acting skills.

"I was like, what? Who are you? And I realized if I used any of those other Precious's that really were like Precious, I would have been exploiting them," he said. "You can't say that about Gabby, she is quite fierce."

Sidibe says her own life is different from her character.

"I am sure I know people who have lived this life," she said. "I had to do them justice."

But like Precious, she has dealt with people gaping at her bigger body size.

"Because I am not, I guess, of a normal weight, people look at me like I am not worth a life and stuff. And I have been told plenty of times that my life would never mean anything," she told Reuters.

"That type of negative self-image, it can drive someone to death, absolutely. And so while I believed that for a lot of time in my life, eventually I stopped listening," she added.

Daniels says her strong sense of self-worth will lead to more success, and Sidibe is already shooting her second film.

"I did not always have this confidence," she said. "Now I live my life for me, I think I am beautiful and that's all that matters."

But stories Daniels tells that Sidibe keeps four or five boyfriends on the run simply aren't true, she says.

"He is so crazy, he makes everyone think I am a ho-ho," she laughed. "How could I keep them straight? I am never in the same state for more than two days at a time!"

Gordon Brown is prepared to actively campaign for Tony Blair to be the first president of the European Union, Downing Street sources have said.

The Prime Minister was said to be ready to start lobbying for support among other EU leaders if Mr Blair throws his hat into the ring as a candidate.

The move comes as Tory leader David Cameron underlined his fierce opposition to Mr Blair becoming president of the European Council, just months before a general election which could see a return to power for the Conservatives.

"I don't think we should be having a president at all. I think Europe is going too far in creating the emblems of statehood rather than being about cooperation and co-ordination," he told a Westminster news conference on Tuesday.

"That said, if we absolutely have to go in that direction I would prefer someone who took a view that it was about being a chairman of the Council of Ministers, rather than some all-singing, all-dancing, all-acting president. And I think I can see what sort of president Tony Blair would be."

The speculation that Mr Blair could assume the role of president has heightened as it appears the Czech Republic - the one member state yet to ratify the Lisbon Treaty which creates the post - is now close to formally accepting it.

Earlier, No 10 denied suggestions that it had already begun lobbying for support for Mr Blair after The Guardian reported that two senior officials - No 10 aide John Cunliffe and EU ambassador Kim Darroch - had already begun "taking soundings" on his behalf.

"Officials have not been asked to go to lobby for Tony Blair's candidacy," the Prime Minister's spokesman said. "Officials are not lobbying for Tony Blair for the presidency because he has not put himself forward as a candidate."

The disclosure now that Mr Brown is prepared to actively campaign on behalf of his predecessor, comes amid signs of impatience in No 10 that Mr Blair has yet to declare his intentions.

The former prime minister, however, is reported to be reluctant to campaign openly, fearing that he could suffer a humiliating rebuff at the hands of EU leaders whose votes will decide who the president will be.

TEHRAN, Iran — U.N. inspectors entered a once-secret uranium enrichment facility with bunker-like construction and heavy military protection that raised Western suspicions about the extent and intent of Iran's nuclear program.

The visit Sunday by the four-member International Atomic Energy Agency team, reported by state media, was the first independent look inside the planned nuclear fuel lab, a former ammunition dump burrowed into the treeless hills south of Tehran and only publicly disclosed last month. The inspectors are expected to study plant blueprints, interview workers and take soil samples before wrapping up the three-day mission.

No results from the inspection are expected until the team leaves the country, but some Iranian officials hailed the visit as an example that their nuclear program was open to international scrutiny.

"IAEA inspectors' visit to Fordo shows that Iran's nuclear activities are transparent and peaceful," the official IRNA news agency quoted lawmaker Hasan Ebrahimi as saying.

Another test of Iran's cooperation is fast approaching, however. Iran has promised to respond this week to a U.N.-brokered deal to process its nuclear fuel abroad — a plan designed to ease Western fears about Iran's potential ability to produce weapons-grade material.

The current inspection of Iran's second enrichment site came about a month after Tehran disclosed its existence in a letter to the IAEA, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog. The notification to the U.N. agency came just days before President Barack Obama and other Western leaders claimed Iran has been hiding the facility from the world for years.

After Iran's disclosure, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that "the burden of proof is on Iran" to convince the international community its nuclear program is peaceful.

Iran says that by reporting the existence of the site voluntarily, it "pre-empted a conspiracy" by the United States and its allies who were hoping to present the site as evidence that Iran was developing its nuclear program in secret.

But the IAEA says Tehran should have reported it before it started construction. And the new facility, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) north of the holy city of Qom, immediately raised suspicions about the aim of the nuclear program — which Iran claims is only for peaceful research and energy production. The site is reached by tunnels and is protected by military installations including missile silos and anti-aircraft batteries, Iranian officials said last month.

Iran says the facility — known as Fordo after a village believed to have the largest percentage of fighters killed in the 1980-88 war with Iraq — was fortified to protect against any possible attack by the United States or Israel.

Officials say the plant won't be operational for another 18 months and would produce uranium enrichment levels up to 5 percent, suitable only for peaceful purposes. Weapons-grade material is more than 90 percent enriched.

Iran says its other known enrichment facility — a much larger industrial-scale plant in Natanz in central Iran — is also only to produce nuclear fuel and not at levels for weapons. But many experts say the enrichment centrifuges could be expanded and upgraded to make weapons-grade material.

Another worry for the West is Iran's plans to install a more advanced type of centrifuge at the Fordo site, capable of enriching uranium several times faster and with higher efficiency.

Iran also has promised to respond later this week on U.N.-drafted proposal to have its nuclear fuel processed in Russia, which would limit Iran's stockpiles and allow more international controls.

Although Iran has not given its official answer on the proposed nuclear deal — discussed last week after talks in Vienna with the United States, France and Russia — there are increasing doubts that Iran's leadership will come on board.

On Saturday, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani claimed the West was trying to "cheat" Iran under the deal that would ship most of Iran's uranium to Russia for reactor-ready enrichment.

Larijani, the country's former nuclear negotiator, said Iran prefers to buy the nuclear fuel it needs for a reactor under construction that makes medical isotopes.

He did not specifically address the fuel needs for Iran's planned full-scale reactor, but Russia is required to provide fuel as part of an agreement to build it for Iran in the southern city of Bushehr. The reactor is nearly operational.

Rejection of the U.N. deal would force the United States and its allies to either return to talks or step up demands for greater economic sanctions and seek to further isolate Iran.

The four-member delegation from the International Atomic Energy Agency is led by Herman Nackaerts, director of IAEA's division of operations department of safeguards. The inspectors are expected to stay three days in Iran.

They are expected to compare Iran's engineering plans with the actual layout of the plant, interview employees and take environmental samples to check for the presence of nuclear materials.

The small-scale site is meant to house no more than 3,000 centrifuges — much less than the estimated 8,000 machines at Natanz.

A recent satellite image provided by DigitalGlobe and GeoEye shows a well-fortified facility built into a mountain about 20 miles northeast of Qom, with ventilation shafts and a nearby surface-to-air missile site, according to defense consultancy IHS Jane's, which did the analysis of the imagery. The image was taken in September.

GlobalSecurity.org analyzed images from 2005 and January 2009 when the site was in an earlier phase of construction and believes the facility is not underground but was instead cut into a mountain. It is constructed of heavily reinforced concrete and is about the size of a football field — large enough to house 3,000 centrifuges used to refine uranium.