Trial begins for Moreno Valley school board member Mike Rios

The young woman on the witness stand said Mike Rios approached her on the street with a school district business card and a job opportunity: He wanted her "to gather girls and sell them," she said.

Identified in court only as Valery, she testified Wednesday that she and others worked as prostitutes for Rios, a member of the Moreno Valley Unified School District Board of Education.

Valery's testimony came on the opening day of Rios' trial in Riverside County Superior Court. He faces 35 felony charges, including rape, pandering and pimping involving six females, two of them underage.

Valery, 21, with long black hair and bangs covering her forehead, bit her lip between questions. In addition to working as a prostitute for Rios, she said, she helped recruit other young women for him.

"He told me we had to get the best-looking girls so we could get more money for them," Valery said.

Prosecutors allege that Rios ran a prostitution ring out of his Moreno Valley home in 2011 and 2012. In opening statements, Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Brusselback told the jury: "This is a case about greed. This is a case about money. This is a case about power."

Rios was "constantly trying to recruit new, young talent," Brusselback said.

Rios' attorney, Deputy Public Defender Michael J. Micallef, told jurors that Rios ran a business involving women stripping, dancing and performing for money but that it "had nothing to do with sex."

The women were free to do whatever they wanted and what they did besides stripping and dancing "wasn't necessarily known to Mr. Rios," Micallef said. Networking with women and growing his business was "the capitalist way," Micallef said.

Rios, 42, was arrested in February on attempted murder charges after he allegedly shot at two people near his home. He was released on bail but was arrested again in April on suspicion of rape, pimping and using his position on the school board to recruit would-be prostitutes.

He was released on bail again and has pleaded not guilty to all the charges in both cases.

While searching Rios' home after the alleged shooting, investigators found numerous cellphones and several condoms in the glove box of the Mercedes-Benz in his garage, testified Paul Grotefend, a Riverside County sheriff's deputy.

Prosecutors say Rios recruited women, took provocative photos of them in his home and posted the photos in online advertisements. He allegedly established a cellphone number solely for the prostitution work, drove the women to various locations to have sex and split the money they earned.

It is alleged that three adult women worked for him as prostitutes and that he attempted to recruit another adult woman and two minors.

On Wednesday, prosecutors showed jurors online advertisements with erotic photos of Valery in lingerie that she said were taken in Rios' bedroom.

Some of the ads read: "Sexy hot beautiful Latina babe Here 4 U."

Valery testified that Rios, on numerous occasions, picked her up from her home in downtown Los Angeles and brought her to his house. He bought her condoms before she met clients, she testified.

When Valery stopped communicating with Rios, he sent her text messages telling her how many missed calls there were on the cellphone he set up for prostitution, she said.

"He assumed every call that came in was a guaranteed customer," she said.

Rios is accused of raping two women, one of whom was intoxicated.

After both arrests last year, Rios returned to the five-member school board.

Though the other school board members passed a resolution calling for Rios to resign, he refused, said board Vice President Tracey B. Vackar. The board cannot remove Rios unless he is convicted, Vackar said.

Rios continues to come to board meetings, Vackar said, and even attended a board study session Tuesday night after a court appearance. Though there was disappointment after he did not resign, Rios has been treated with respect at meetings and "has not been disruptive," Vackar said.

The trial is expected to continue Thursday. The case involving the attempted murder charges — which is separate from the current case — is pending trial, with the next court date scheduled for February.

Rios, wearing a blue suit, was quiet in court Wednesday, sitting next to his attorney with his hands folded.

hailey.branson@latimes.com

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Nintendo chief rules out price cuts for Wii U

TOKYO (AP) — Nintendo‘s president Thursday ruled out price cuts for its new Wii U home console as a way to boost sales, vowing to become profitable again in its core businesses as smartphones and tablets increasingly threaten specialized game machines.

Satoru Iwata, speaking at a Tokyo hotel to investors and reporters a day after earnings were released, acknowledged the sales momentum for the Wii U, as well as the 3DS hand-held game machine, had run out of steam during the key year-end shopping season, especially in the U.S.

But he said no price cuts were in the works. Price cuts are common in the gaming industry to woo buyers, but the move can backfire by trimming revenue. The Wii U now sells for about $ 300 in the U.S. and 25,000 yen in Japan.

“We are already offering it at a good price,” he said.

Iwata said he expects operating profit of more than 100 billion yen in the 12 months ending March 2014, promising that as “a commitment.”

But he acknowledged more work was needed to have consumers understand the Wii U, which went on sale globally late last year, as well as producing more game software to draw buyers.

All game machines have suffered in recent years from the advent of smartphones and other mobile devices that have become more sophisticated and offer games and other forms of entertainment.

Nintendo returned to net profit for the April-December period of 2012 from deep losses the previous year, but that was due to a perk from a weaker yen, which helps Japanese exporters such as Nintendo.

Its operating result, which removes currency fluctuations, was a loss of 5.86 billion yen ($ 64 million), and Nintendo expects that to swell to a 20 billion yen ($ 220 million) loss for the full business year ending March 2013 as sales of its game consoles fall short of expectations.

Iwata said Nintendo is preparing more game software, including those developed in-house, for the end of this year.

Kyoto-based Nintendo, which makes Super Mario and Pokemon games, lowered its full year sales forecast Wednesday to 670 billion yen ($ 7.4 billion) from 810 billion yen ($ 8.9 billion). It also said it was going to sell fewer Wii U consoles for the fiscal year through March than its previous projection. The Wii U has a touch-screen tablet controller called GamePad and a TV-watching feature called TVii.

The company forecasts it will sell 4 million Wii U consoles for the current fiscal year, ending March 31, down from its earlier estimate of 5.5 million units. The Wii U, which went on sale late last year, was the first major new game console to arrive in stores in years.

Nintendo, also behind the Donkey Kong and Zelda games, lowered its full year sales forecast for Wii U game software units to 16 million from 24 million.

Iwata said last year holiday sales quickly dissipated in the U.S. and some European nations, including Great Britain, the key market. He said the U.S. home console sales were the worst for Nintendo in nearly a decade.

He said Nintendo needs hit games to push console sales, and the company remains confident Wii U will prove more popular with time.

“The chicken-and-game problem has not been solved,” he said of the need for both game software and machine hardware.

“I feel a deep sense of responsibility for not being able to produce results for our year-end business,” said Iwata.

He declined to say what he would do if the company failed to attain the promised operating profits.

Nintendo sank into a loss the previous fiscal year largely because of price cuts for its hand-held 3DS game machine, which shows three-dimensional imagery without special glasses. That machine is also struggling in most global markets.

Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo’s famed game designer, said what was missing were games for the Wii U that made its appeal clear. The progress in smartphones has also posed a challenge for Nintendo, he said.

“People have to try it to see it is fun,” Miyamoto said of Wii U.

___

Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at www.twitter.com/yurikageyama

Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Brooke Burke-Charvet Refuses to Say 'Fat' Or 'Diet' in Front of Her Kids

By Dahvi Shira

01/31/2013 at 07:15 AM EST

A healthy home is a happy home for Brooke Burke-Charvet.

The mother of four kids – Neriah, 12, Sierra, 10, Rain, 6, and Shaya, 4 – hopes her lifestyle rubs off on them.

"I always tell other parents to lead by example," Burke-Charvet, 41, told PEOPLE on Tuesday. "My kids know I'm always working out and I love to cook. I'm always preparing healthy meals. I think it's also about giving them healthy options, which is so, so important. My little ones, especially, grocery shop with me. They're in the kitchen. They love to cook."

Part of what she believes helps guide her children down the right path is being as cautious about what comes out of her mouth as what goes into it.

"I try to never use words like 'fat' or 'diet,' " she says. "I try to choose my words carefully with my kids. It's just about making good choices and enjoying what we eat and making delicious flavorful foods that are healthy. I'm just teaching them about being healthy and strong, not about being thin."

But a mom who is always "working out super hard" deserves a break.

"I love my red wine," the Dancing with the Stars co-host says. "I think every mom deserves a glass of wine. I eat so healthy, but I listen to my body when I have cravings and I think that's why I'm able to maintain a healthy lifestyle. If I'm really craving something, I have it. The next day, I'm back on track."

Brooke Burke-Charvet doing her Kleenex duties

Michael Simon

Burke-Charvet, who began filming her own line of workout videos over the summer, isn't only healthy when it comes to her weight. She already feels "back to normal" following a thyroidectomy in December, and it shows. She was recently spotted looking radiant and smiling with husband David Charvet at brand new members only spot 41 Ocean in Santa Monica.

"I'm so blessed and fortunate with the way things worked out with my surgery," she says. "Now I'm back in the swing of things, working and feeling great."

Now that she's no longer on the mend, she wanted to help someone else who is. Burke recently teamed up with Kleenex to deliver a special care package (tissues, sanitizers, lip balm, a cozy blanket and music downloads) to an ailing Malibu sweepstakes winner during flu season.

"It's the perfect sort of recovery care package. It was a really thoughtful gift to send to somebody. The winner was really surprised," Burke says.

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IHT Rendezvous: A Story Known Far and Wide, in Denmark at Least

Until this month, if the Danish director and screenwriter Nikolaj Arcel was known at all in the English-speaking world, it was as the co-writer of the screenplay for the original version of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.” But after winning two prizes at the Berlin Film Festival a year ago, the latest film he directed, “A Royal Affair,” is now getting attention in Hollywood as one of the five contenders nominated for the Academy Award for best foreign-language film.

“A Royal Affair” is set in the late 18th century, in the court of Christian VII, the mentally ill king of Denmark. A German doctor with progressive political and medical ideas, Johann Friederich Struensee, is hired to attend him, but after some initial improvement in the king’s behavior, things begin to take an unexpected direction: the doctor fills Christian with the revolutionary ideas of Voltaire and Rousseau at the same time he secretly becomes the lover of the young English-born queen, Caroline.

The film is the fifth Mr. Arcel has directed and features Mads Mikkelsen, who has appeared in “Casino Royale” and “Clash of the Titans,” as Struensee and Alicia Vikander, seen most recently in “Anna Karenina,” as Caroline. This week Mr. Arcel, 40, spoke by telephone from Denmark, where he is at work on a new project, about the genesis and objectives of “A Royal Affair.” Here are edited excerpts from that interview:

Your film portrays an episode virtually unknown outside Denmark. How well-known is it among Danes in the 21st century?

This is probably one of the most famous historic episodes in Denmark, and I would say that every single Dane knows about it. But it’s funny, because as soon as you cross the border, nobody knows it. So basically it’s only Denmark, where it’s taught in schools.

Did this story fascinate you as a child?

Yes, as it did most Danish kids. Of course you can’t understand the complexities of it when you’re in second or third grade, but what you can understand is that a beautiful young girl married a crazy king and had an affair with a rebellious revolutionary doctor. The adventure of it got to me as a kid.

So why hadn’t a movie version of this story been made earlier?

It’s a very ambitious project. I knew a lot of people had been trying to make the film for many, many years; obviously it’s been a bit of a holy grail for Danish filmmakers. But of course because of financing and various other problems, I guess it didn’t get made.

I never thought I would be crazy enough to try and do it. But then eventually after my third film, I thought, “O.K., if nobody is going to do this film, maybe I should give it a go.” Then cut to five years later, because it did actually take that long to get it done.

To tell the story, you opted to make a genre film, somewhat in the style of the costume dramas that the British do so well. Why did you take that approach?

Denmark is known for smaller sort of films, the Dogme films and small dramas, but what my entire career has been about has been making films that are very non-Danish in their look and way of storytelling. So I always find joy in trying to do something that has never been done in Denmark before. In this case it was the big, epic, lavish sort of costume drama.

When you talking about your films looking non-Danish, what do you mean?

I was part of a generation raised on American films, on the films of the ’70s, the new Hollywood, and I was a big fan of those. We grew up with a healthy mix of Hal Ashby, Scorsese, Coppola, Spielberg and Lucas, and you can see that in other filmmakers my age now in Denmark. They have a slightly more Americanized way of telling stories, a slightly more lavish scope and are making films that are a little bit more genre and not so much dramas that are about divorce and death and family. We like to tell slightly bigger stories. I’m a big political nut myself, so a lot of my films have politics.

It’s interesting to hear you say that, because I thought you were using the costume drama and romantic triangle in “A Royal Affair” to deal a lot with politics, and not just 18th-century politics but also issues that confront us today.

Yes, the big fight between conservatism and idealism. When I was writing, it was general feelings that I had about things that are still being discussed. When we were at Berlin, it was very timely because of the Arab Spring. Everybody thought we had done a film about the Arab Spring. And then when it came to America, it was the presidential election, and everybody in the U.S. thought we did a film that spoke to the American political situation. But this just goes to show that these are discussions that never end. We’re still discussing the same issues.

So the debate in the film about whether to inoculate the population against smallpox is a kind of stand-in for current issues like global warming and whether the 1 percent should pay more in taxes?

Yes, and you can even relate it to the health care discussion: should we use money to make sure that people are healthy? The conservatives at court are saying we don’t have money for that, we’ll just inoculate the wealthy— which is something that still goes on, I think.

Lars von Trier is listed as one of the executive producers of “A Royal Affair.” Could you talk a bit about his participation in the project?

He’s a friend and obviously a mentor to me and to almost every Danish filmmaker. I asked him to be the main consultant for the screenplay and also in the editing. He came in and read the screenplay at various stages and gave his notes and came up with some ideas. He was the one, for example, who suggested that we follow both Caroline and Struensee instead of following just one of them. He said, “You should go epic and spend the time it takes to be with both of them, instead of just one.” And that was very good advice.

And in the editing process?

He also came into the editing room and sat with us for a couple of weeks. He gives very good, concise notes, he’s very good at that. The good thing about Lars is that he’s a brutal guy. He will just tell you if something doesn’t work, and he will tell you right away ‘I hate that’ or ‘I love that.’ (Laughs)

Specifically, he did help us take out some overexplaining at certain points. We thought the audience wouldn’t get certain things, but he said, “Take this out, delete this scene, you don’t need that.” He is basically the mentor of this film.

I know you’re being told you’ve got an uphill climb, being in the same category as Michael Haneke’s “Amour,” but you sound like you’re pleased just to be one of the nominees.

Yes, of course. I mean, who wouldn’t be? I think that being nominated for an Oscar is something quite joyful and if you start really stressing that you want to win, then you get … I think winning is not the important thing. It’s really an honor to be in the company of Haneke and some of these other directors. I’ll just be happy with that for now. (Laughs)

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Soldier with new arms determined to be independent

BALTIMORE (AP) — After weeks of round-the-clock medical care, Brendan Marrocco insisted on rolling his own wheelchair into a news conference using his new transplanted arms. Then he brushed his hair to one side.

Such simple tasks would go unnoticed in most patients. But for Marrocco, who lost all four limbs while serving in Iraq, these little actions demonstrate how far he's come only six weeks after getting a double-arm transplant.

Wounded by a roadside bomb in 2009, the former soldier said he could get by without legs, but he hated living without arms.

"Not having arms takes so much away from you. Even your personality, you know. You talk with your hands. You do everything with your hands, and when you don't have that, you're kind of lost for a while," the 26-year-old New Yorker told reporters Tuesday at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Doctors don't want him using his new arms too much yet, but his gritty determination to regain independence was one of the chief reasons he was chosen to receive the surgery, which has been performed in the U.S. only seven times.

That's the message Marrocco said he has for other wounded soldiers.

"Just not to give up hope. You know, life always gets better, and you're still alive," he said. "And to be stubborn. There's a lot of people who will say you can't do something. Just be stubborn and do it anyway. Work your ass off and do it."

Dr. W.P. Andrew Lee, head of the team that conducted the surgery, said the new arms could eventually provide much of the same function as his original arms and hands. Another double-arm transplant patient can now use chopsticks and tie his shoes.

Lee said Marrocco's recovery has been remarkable, and the transplant is helping to "restore physical and psychological well-being."

Tuesday's news conference was held to mark a milestone in his recovery — the day he was to be discharged from the hospital.

Next comes several years of rehabilitation, including physical therapy that is going to become more difficult as feeling returns to the arms.

Before the surgery, he had been living with his older brother in a specially equipped home on New York's Staten Island that had been built with the help of several charities. Shortly after moving in, he said it was "a relief to not have to rely on other people so much."

The home was heavily damaged by Superstorm Sandy last fall.

"We'll get it back together. We've been through a lot worse than that," his father, Alex Marrocco, said.

For the next few months, Marrocco plans to live with his brother in an apartment near the hospital.

The former infantryman said he can already move the elbow on his left arm and rotate it a little bit, but there hasn't been much movement yet for his right arm, which was transplanted higher up.

Marrocco's mother, Michelle Marrocco, said he can't hug her yet, so he brushes his left arm against her face.

The first time he moved his left arm was a complete surprise, an involuntary motion while friends were visiting him in the hospital, he said.

"I had no idea what was going through my mind. I was with my friends, and it happened by accident," he recalled. "One of my friends said 'Did you do that on purpose?' And I didn't know I did it."

Marrocco's operation also involved a technical feat not tried in previous cases, Lee said in an interview after the news conference.

A small part of Marrocco's left forearm remained just below his elbow, and doctors transplanted a whole new forearm around and on top of it, then rewired nerves to serve the old and new muscles in that arm.

"We wanted to save his joint. In the unlucky event we would lose the transplant, we still wanted him to have the elbow joint," Lee said.

He also explained why leg transplants are not done for people missing those limbs — "it's not very practical." That's because nerves regrow at best about an inch a month, so it would be many years before a transplanted leg was useful.

Even if movement returned, a patient might lack sensation on the soles of the feet, which would be unsafe if the person stepped on sharp objects and couldn't feel the pain.

And unlike prosthetic arms and hands, which many patients find frustrating, the ones for legs are good. That makes the risks of a transplant not worth taking.

"It's premature" until there are better ways to help nerves regrow, Lee said.

Now Marrocco, who was the first soldier to survive losing all four limbs in the Iraq War, is looking forward to getting behind the wheel of his black 2006 Dodge Charger and hand-cycling a marathon.

Asked if he could one day throw a football, Dr. Jaimie Shores said sure, but maybe not like Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco.

"Thanks for having faith in me," Marrocco interjected, drawing laughter from the crowd.

His mother said Marrocco has always been "a tough cookie."

"He's not changed that, and he's just taken it and made it an art form," Michelle Marrocco said. "He's never going to stop. He's going to be that boy I knew was going to be a pain in my butt forever. And he's going to show people how to live their lives."

___

Associated Press Chief Medical Writer Marilynn Marchione in Milwaukee and AP writer David Dishneau in Hagerstown, Md., contributed to this report.

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Slain doctor remembered for faith and zest for life

He was remembered by patients and colleagues as a caring and talented physician, one who followed his father's footsteps into medicine. And his friends spoke of how devout he was in his Jewish faith as well as of his kindness and his zest for life.

"He was just a good soul," one colleague and friend said.

Now police are trying to determine why someone would walk into the urologist's Newport Beach offices and shoot him to death.

Dr. Ronald Gilbert was killed Monday in an exam room of his practice in the heart of a bustling medical community, allegedly gunned down by a 75-year-old retired barber who recently told a neighbor that he had cancer and didn't expect to live much longer.

Stanwood Fred Elkus of Lake Elsinore was arrested within seven minutes of the first call from the medical offices next to Hoag Memorial Hospital, authorities said. Elkus, who is being held on $1-million bail and is expected to be in court Wednesday, was described by neighbors as having problems with his prostate and undergoing surgeries. He recently told a neighbor that he believed he would soon be dead.

One neighbor, Sherry Martin, said that Elkus would always ride through his Riverside County neighborhood on his bike, wearing a baseball cap. Sometimes, he offered to give haircuts to neighbors.

But Elkus had run-ins with other neighbors in the past, including a dispute over bushes in a woman's backyard that was exacerbated into more than a year of Elkus allegedly taunting her family. Melissa Evans, 36, said that he would pass by on his bike or in his car, staring them down, or would harass their dog late at night.

"He just couldn't let it go," she said. "He couldn't let go of something so small."

Evans said the erratic behavior was so unsettling that she, her husband and three sons moved to a community 10 miles away. But even after they moved to Wildomar, she said, he was spotted driving by their new home about three months ago.

Gilbert's death, however, has prompted a different sort of reaction: an outpouring of warm memories and shock at his violent death.

Colleagues said Gilbert, 52, had an "impeccable" reputation, having worked as the chief of urology at Hoag Hospital from 1998 to 2002 and as a volunteer faculty member at UC Irvine's Medical School, from which he graduated in 1987. His research interests included sexual dysfunction and bladder and prostate cancer.

He had also developed a spray designed to treat premature ejaculation. Dr. Eugene Rhee, president of the California Urological Assn., said Gilbert was especially proud of that work. "It was a much-needed medication," Rhee said.

Bruce Sechler, 61, had been Gilbert's patient for about seven years. "Right off the bat," the Huntington Beach resident said, "he could put you at ease and make you feel like he was genuinely concerned about you as a person and your needs."

Gerry Crews, a close friend who had known Gilbert since their high school days in Whittier, said that he knew how to have fun too, and loved classic rock. He sang in a garage band with Crews' older brother in high school. But he also had a laser focus during his undergraduate years at UC Santa Barbara so that he could achieve his ambition of becoming a doctor like his father.

"I was not a hard worker in college; he was," Crews, 51, said. "From the start, he planned to go to medical school and he worked very hard to get into medical school."

Even with his focus on medicine, friends recalled that he had a unique ability to keep an open and balanced life. He held on to a deep appreciation for music, and would have jam sessions with his sons, who played guitar and drums. He also traveled and snow-skied.

Faith had also been a pillar in his life, friends say, influencing his choices and how he approached the world.

Crews said he moved from Tustin — where his old friends lived nearby — to Huntington Harbour so that he could be closer to his synagogue and walk there on the Sabbath. He had also retrofitted his kitchen to prepare kosher meals. And his oldest son had recently been living in Israel.

"On Saturdays," Gilbert's neighbor Betty Combs recalled, "they dressed to the nines and walked to synagogue."

Those who knew him also said he had built up a stable of friends over the years because he was willing to share his time and knowledge. Crews remembered him being a source of support on the two times his wife had breast cancer.

"He was generous of himself," said Tom Mayer, a longtime friend and a registered nurse who once worked at Hoag Hospital. "He gave you everything."

When he heard of a shooting at the Newport Beach medical campus, Mayer, 49, drove straight there from work in Mission Viejo, still dressed in his scrubs. He had called and texted Gilbert, but there was no reply. The next day, he recalled the impact Gilbert's unconditional friendship had on his life.

"He was a light," Mayer said. "He was someone who could be turned to, just to talk.... My life wouldn't be the same if I never met Ron."

nicole.santacruz@latimes.com

rick.rojas@latimes.com

Times Community News staff writers Jill Cowan and Lauren Williams contributed to this report.

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RIM to debut new BlackBerry smartphones in a heavily hyped unveiling

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Following several delays and much anticipation, the new BlackBerry smartphones will be unveiled this morning in New York.

Research In Motion (TSX:RIM), the company behind the once dominant smartphones, is holding a splashy event in Manhattan to usher in the new devices, which were originally due for release last year.

The debut is expected to showcase the device as well as provide key launch details.

That will likely include its release date, which is expected in the next four to six weeks, the phone’s features and how much it will cost.

The company says the new BlackBerry will be released first in a touchscreen version, while a keypad alternative will follow in the weeks or months afterward.

The new phone launch is RIM’s attempt to regain its position in the highly competitive North American and European smartphone markets, which are now dominated by iPhone and Android devices.

While the first hurdles to overcome are the opinions of tech analysts and investor reaction, the true measure of success — actual sales of the phones — is still weeks away.

The BlackBerry has dramatically lost marketshare in recent years after a series of blunders.

Several network outages left customers without the use of the smartphones they had come to rely on, while the BlackBerry’s hardware hasn’t received a significant upgrade in years.

RIM chief executive Thorsten Heins has already offered a glimpse of some features on the new devices. They include BlackBerry Balance technology, which allows one phone to operate as both a business and personal device entirely separate from each other.

The new BlackBerry will also let users seamlessly shift between the phone’s applications like they’re flipping between pages on a desk.

In the coming weeks, RIM will launch an advertising blitz to promote the phones, including aggressive social media campaigning, which includes plugs from celebrities on their Twitter accounts, and a 30-second advertisement on the Super Bowl, the most watched television program of the year.

Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Charlize Theron Relaxes With a Girls' Dinner in West Hollywood

Caught in the Act

01/30/2013 at 06:00 AM EST

Charlize Theron shared dinner with a girlfriend at Tortilla Republic in West Hollywood on Monday.

Wearing a black blouse, blue jeans and high heels – while sporting her new short dark hair style – the Snow White and the Huntsman actress and her friend ordered up huarache hongos flatbread, housemade guacamole and jalapeño Margaritas.

Theron – who is mom to son Jackson – seemed to be enjoying her down time.

"She was relaxed and in a good mood," an onlooker tells PEOPLE.

– Jennifer Garcia

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IHT Rendezvous: As Asia Grows, So Do Prizes

BEIJING — A new Asian prize that pays more than the Nobel Prize will launch next year, joining an expanding list of cash-rich awards in the region as prosperity and philanthropy grow. Yet one prize – China’s Confucius Peace Prize – set up in 2010 in apparently outraged response to the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo – seems to be unable to establish itself. In fact, as one commentator wrote in the state-run Global Times late last year, “the award has been widely mocked.”

That is unlikely to happen to the Tang Prize, set up by Samuel Yin, a multibillionaire from Taiwan who has pledged to give away nearly all his wealth.

The new prize will award $1.7 million every other year to winners in each of four fields: sustainable development, biopharmaceutical science, Sinology, and the rule of law, Science magazine reported. The money will be divided into two parts, an award and a research fund, with the bulk going to the award.

Mr. Yin, head of Ruentex Group, is Taiwan’s seventh-richest person, according to Forbes magazine, worth about $3.1 billion from diversified investments including a hypermarket, insurance and Taiwanese real estate.

The award, announced on Monday in Taipei, “lengthens the list of rich science prizes funded by Asian philanthropists,” Science magazine reported. “Run Run Shaw, a Hong Kong media mogul, in 2002 established the Shaw Prize, which annually confers $1 million for work in astronomy, life science and medicine, and mathematical sciences.”

“Three other major science prizes in Japan hand out about $550,000 to each winner annually,” including the Kyoto Prize (technology, basic science, arts and philosophy), the Japan Prize (environment, energy and infrastructure, and health care and medical technology), and the Blue Planet Prize (environmental research.)

Mr. Yin hopes the new prize will “encourage more research that is beneficial to the world and humankind, promote Chinese culture, and make the world a better place,” according to a press release.

Academia Sinica, which oversees Taiwan’s premier research labs, will be responsible for the nomination and selection process, Science reported. The prize is named after the Tang dynasty, a high point in Chinese civilization and multiculturalism.

Yet if awarding prizes for science is relatively straightforward, awarding prizes for peace is far more controversial, as the ongoing debacle with the Confucius Peace Prize shows.

Its travails have been widely reported, with this story in Time magazine summing up some of the major issues, which include “wacky” nominee lists and a controversial founder, the Peking University professor and staunch Chinese ultra-nationalist Kong Qingdong, who claims to be a 73rd-generation offspring of Confucius himself and who early last year caused a storm of controversy after calling Hong Kong people “dogs” and “thieves.”

Time said the prize, awarded by “an obscure mainland group” (the China International Peace Research Center) was “a clumsy attempt to divert attention from the fact that the world’s most famous peace prize had just gone to a jailed Chinese dissident.” The government has reportedly dissociated itself from the award.

In 2010 and 2011 it was awarded, respectively, to a Taiwanese politician, Lien Chan, and to the Russian leader Vladimir V. Putin. Neither showed up for the ceremony.

Instead, wrote Xue Lei, a research fellow at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies in the Global Times, “the award was given to a terrified small child” who was supposed to represent Mr. Lien, and to “two Russian hotties, supposed to represent Russian President Vladimir Putin,” all of which “just added to the entertainment value.”

Now, it appears to be slipping below the radar altogether.

Only a determined search of the Chinese internet showed up a report, dated Dec. 28, that suggested that last year a prize committee of 39 “experts and scholars” had in fact picked two winners for the 2012 award: Yuan Longping, known as “the father of hybrid rice,” a well-known scientist who for decades has worked to increase rice yields; and Kofi Annan, the former secretary-general of the United Nations.

But as the report on clubkdnet, an online chat forum, said, “there are no photographs on the internet of them receiving their prizes.”

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Soldier talks about his new arms after transplant

BALTIMORE (AP) — A soldier who lost all four limbs in an Iraq roadside bombing has two new arms following a double transplant at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Twenty-six-year-old Brendan Marrocco along with the surgeons who treated him will be at the Baltimore hospital on Tuesday to discuss the new limbs.

The transplants are only the seventh double-hand or double-arm transplant ever conducted in the United States.

The infantryman was injured by a roadside bomb in 2009. The New York City man also received bone marrow from the same dead donor. The approach is aimed at helping his body accept the new arms with minimal medication to prevent rejection.

The military is sponsoring operations like these to help wounded troops. About 300 have lost arms or hands in the wars.

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