Chinese smartphone makers Huawei, ZTE target top tier

BARCELONA (Reuters) – China’s Huawei, little known to consumers just a couple of years ago, is now leading the pack of smartphone makers chasing Apple and Samsung, with ZTE, another Chinese company, snapping at its heels.

Huawei, which sold 32 million smartphones in 2012, up 60 percent on 2011, unveiled its new flagship Ascend P2 smartphone in Barcelona, boasting a connection speed of 150 MB per second, the fastest on the market.

The company was third in smartphone sales in the final quarter of 2012, according to research firm IDC, with ZTE in fifth place and Sony sandwiched in between. Samsung and Apple, however, were far in front with half the market between them.

Wan Biao, chief executive of Huawei Device Co, said the Ascend P2′s faster download speeds would make a difference to customers using 4G networks in countries such as Japan.

The device also includes power-saving technology, developed using expertise from its networks business, which Biao said helped it stand out against other high-end phones running Google’s Android software.

“Our target is for Huawei to provide the best smartphones in the world, better than the iPhone, better than Samsung,” he said in an interview on Monday. “Our target is top three in market share.”

Huawei, which became established by selling unbranded phones to operators, said the Ascend P2 would be available from the second quarter priced at 399 euros, hundred of euros less than flagship devices from its rivals.

Biao said that the company was still establishing itself as a brand in the minds of consumers, so its phones did not attract high subsidies from network operators.

“Operators give a high subsidy to Samsung and Apple,” he said. “We have a very high quality product but the price we set is not as high as these two smartphones; we have to develop differentiated products.”

Analyst Carolina Milanesi at Gartner said the Ascend P2 was a notable step forward for the Chinese company, showing a focus on the most important aspects for consumers, such as speed, an impressive screen and longer battery life.

ZTE, which also developed its technology by making devices for others, is equally ambitious. On Monday, it said it expected to increase smartphone revenue by 30 percent this year.

“We at ZTE consider ourselves as not tier one yet, we see ourselves as tier two, comparable to HTC, Sony and Motorola,” He Shiyou, head of mobile services division, said in an interviewer via a translator. “We have to be as aggressive as possible.”

He said ZTE would reduce its product range to achieve larger sales of fewer models, and focus on the strongest markets for smartphones – the United States, China, Europe and Australia.

It previously took ZTE six months to catch up with the Samsung’s software and hardware specifications, he said, but now it only took a quarter. “We need to close that gap,” he said.

“By 2015, we are hoping to achieve the top three by market share, but in terms of branding image and also pricing segmentation, we want to reach the top five,” he said.

ZTE unveiled a 5.7 inch Grand Memo handset in Barcelona, firmly in the “phablet” screen dimensions that Samsung has popularized in its Note range, and the ZTE Open, a smartphone running on Mozilla’s Firefox OS open ecosystem.

(Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

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Skepticism Surrounds Resumption of Nuclear Talks With Iran

ALMATY, Kazakhstan — Talks between Iran and six world powers over its nuclear program resume here on Tuesday after a break of eight months, but there is a general atmosphere of gloom about their prospects for success, even if narrowly defined.

Since talks in Moscow last June, Iran has continued to increase its stockpile of uranium enriched to 20 percent purity, has begun to install a new generation of centrifuges and has not yet completed an agreement on inspection of suspect military sites with the International Atomic Energy Agency, a deal originally advertised as all but done last May.

With presidential elections in Iran scheduled for June, senior Western diplomats involved with these talks expressed skepticism that Tehran’s chief negotiator, Saeed Jalili, would be willing to make compromises that could be portrayed as weakness at home.

Mr. Jalili is the personal representative of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, considered the dominant voice on the nuclear issue. Ayatollah Khamenei has recently expressed continued mistrust of the United States and its intentions, saying that he would not allow the kind of bilateral talks between Washington and Tehran that most analysts think would be crucial to any resolution.

At the same time, Iran has taken some of its stockpile of 20 percent enriched uranium and converted it into reactor fuel, which cannot easily be turned back. The conversion means that Iran now has less of the uranium needed to make a bomb, reducing the sense of urgency among the six powers, and Israel, that its nuclear program needs to be slowed.

But the total Iranian stockpile of 20 percent enriched uranium has nonetheless grown since November to 167 kilograms from 135 kilograms, according to the most recent I.A.E.A. report — closer to, if still significantly below, the 240 kilograms or 250 kilograms many experts consider necessary, once enriched further, to produce a nuclear weapon.

Iran denies that its nuclear program has any military aim. The six world powers, the so-called P5-plus-1 group, which are the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — and Germany, want Iran to obey Security Council resolutions ordering it to suspend enrichment and open itself up fully to I.A.E.A. inspectors, to ensure that there is no effort to build a nuclear weapon.

To press Iran to comply, the Security Council, the United States and the European Union have created an increasingly painful set of economic sanctions on Iran, as part of a dual-track strategy — negotiations and sanctions. Iran has for its part insisted that as a precondition for serious negotiations, the world should lift all the sanctions and recognize Iran’s “right to enrich,” which Iran asserts it has as a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

The negotiations have been tedious, with Iran appearing to be playing for time, diplomats say. The six powers had asked for a resumption of these talks as early as December, but Iran rejected dates and sites before finally suggesting and agreeing upon Almaty. The choice pleased Western diplomats for its symbolic value, since Kazakhstan, when it became independent of the Soviet Union, freely relinquished the nuclear weapons it had inherited from Moscow. American officials are holding up Kazakhstan, one of the world’s largest producers of uranium and a maker of nuclear fuel, as an example to Iran of the benefits of peaceful nuclear energy and compliance with the I.A.E.A.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan appealed to Tehran in a New York Times Op-Ed article in March 2012 to abandon what he suggested was its pursuit of nuclear power status. “Kazakhstan’s experience shows that nations can reap huge benefits from turning their backs on nuclear weapons,” he wrote.

While expectations are low, the six hope to leave here with some momentum and signs of Iranian willingness to engage in what all have agreed should be a reciprocal and step-by-step process of lifting sanctions in return for Iranian actions to comply.

“Iran needs to understand that there is an urgent need to make concrete and tangible progress” in these talks, said Michael Mann, the spokesman for Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign policy chief and chairwoman of the P5-plus-1 group.

Mr. Mann said that the six powers have together “prepared a good and updated offer for the talks which we believe is balanced and a fair basis for constructive talks” and that is “also responsive to Iranian ideas.”

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LAPD snipers with 50-caliber rifles, undercover cops in tuxedos at Oscars

The Los Angeles Police Department will be on high alert during the Academy Awards, and numerous streets around the show's Hollywood venue will be closed Sunday.

The LAPD has not released any details of its security plans. A law enforcement source told The Times Sunday that security will be heavy but that there are no extra precautions being taken this year. The source spoke on the condition of anonymity because the security measures were ongoing.

The Oscars are being held Sunday evening at the Dolby Theatre in the Hollywood & Highland Center. 

FULL COVERAGE: Oscars 2013 | Top nominees

Typically, the LAPD has snipers with 50-caliber
rifle on roofs and a robotic
forklift known as "Batcat" capable of lifting a bomb-filled
truck. Even
the way the limousines enter the area has been designed to slow their passage by
forcing them to weave around concrete barriers.

Several
hundred officers in uniform will staff checkpoints and road blocks while a
couple hundred are working as private security, donning tuxedos to provide
personal and red-carpet protection.

Hollywood Boulevard was to be closed between
Highland Avenue and Orange Drive starting at 10 a.m. Sunday. Public buses were to be rerouted, according to the Oscars' website.

Additionally, the Highland Avenue offramps from the 101 Freeway will close.

Here are some of the other planned closures, according to the website:

-- Orchid Street from 60 feet south of Franklin Boulevard to Orchid
Alley until 6 a.m. Monday, except for residents, emergency vehicles and
hotel loading.

-- Orange Drive from Orchid Alley to Hollywood Boulevard until 6 a.m.
Monday, except for residents, local business access and emergency
vehicles.

-- North and south sidewalk of Hawthorn Avenue from Highland Avenue to Orange Drive to 6 a.m. Monday.

-- North sidewalk of Hollywood Boulevard from Highland Avenue to
Orange Drive from 10 p.m. Saturday to 6 a.m. Monday. MTA station to be
bypassed by the last regularly scheduled
train on Saturday until the first scheduled train after 6 a.m. Monday.
Pedestrian traffic rerouted to south sidewalk.

-- West sidewalk of Highland from Johnny Grant Way south to Hollywood Boulevard from
10 p.m. Saturday to 6 a.m. Monday.

-- Johnny Grant Way from Highland to Orchid Street from 10 p.m. Saturday to 6 a.m. Monday.

-- Remainder of Hawthorn Alley from Orange Drive to Highland Avenue from 12:01 a.m. Sunday to 6 a.m. Monday.

-- Orange Drive from Hawthorn Avenue to Hollywood Boulevard from 12:01 a.m. Sunday to 6 a.m. Monday.

-- North sidewalk of Hollywood Boulevard from Highland to 300 feet east
in front of closed businesses from 12:01 a.m. Sunday to 6 a.m. Monday. 

-- South sidewalk of Hollywood Boulevard from Highland to 300 feet east
from 12:01 a.m. Sunday to 6 a.m. Monday, except for 8-foot pedestrian
access. 

-- South sidewalk of Hollywood Boulevard directly in front of the
north-south-running Hawthorn Alley from 12:01 a.m. Sunday to 6 a.m.
Monday. No pedestrian access to
cross alley.

-- East sidewalk of Highland from Hollywood Boulevard to Hawthorn from
12:01 a.m. Sunday to 6 a.m. Monday, except for 8-foot pedestrian access. 

-- West sidewalk of Highland from Hollywood Boulevard south to Hawthorn
from 12:01 a.m. Sunday to 6 a.m. Monday, except for 8-foot pedestrian
access.

-- East sidewalk of Highland from Yucca Street south to the alley from
12:01 a.m. Sunday to 6 a.m. Monday, except for 8-foot pedestrian access.

-- North and south crosswalks on Hollywood Boulevard at the Highland intersection from 4 a.m. Sunday to 6 a.m. Monday.

ALSO:

Riverside officer wounded in Dorner manhunt is identified

Dorner manhunt: Incendiary tear gas reportedly used on cabin

Dorner's alleged victim Monica Quan remembered at private funeral

— Richard Winton

Photo: Oscar statues are moved into place for the Academy Awards. Credit: Al Seib/ Los Angeles Times

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FDA approves new targeted breast cancer drug

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration has approved a first-of-a-kind breast cancer medication that targets tumor cells while sparing healthy ones.

The drug Kadcyla from Roche combines the established drug Herceptin with a powerful chemotherapy drug and a third chemical linking the medicines together. The chemical keeps the cocktail intact until it binds to a cancer cell, delivering a potent dose of anti-tumor poison.

Cancer researchers say the drug is an important step forward because it delivers more medication while reducing the unpleasant side effects of chemotherapy.

"This antibody goes seeking out the tumor cells, gets internalized and then explodes them from within. So it's very kind and gentle on the patients — there's no hair loss, no nausea, no vomiting," said Dr. Melody Cobleigh of Rush University Medical Center. "It's a revolutionary way of treating cancer."

Cobleigh helped conduct the key studies of the drug at the Chicago facility.

The FDA approved the new treatment for about 20 percent of breast cancer patients with a form of the disease that is typically more aggressive and less responsive to hormone therapy. These patients have tumors that overproduce a protein known as HER-2. Breast cancer is the second most deadly form of cancer in U.S. women, and is expected to kill more than 39,000 Americans this year, according to the National Cancer Institute.

The approval will help Roche's Genentech unit build on the blockbuster success of Herceptin, which has long dominated the breast cancer marketplace. The drug had sales of roughly $6 billion last year.

Genentech said Friday that Kadcyla will cost $9,800 per month, compared to $4,500 per month for regular Herceptin. The company estimates a full course of Kadcyla, about nine months of medicine, will cost $94,000.

FDA scientists said they approved the drug based on company studies showing Kadcyla delayed the progression of breast cancer by several months. Researchers reported last year that patients treated with the drug lived 9.6 months before death or the spread of their disease, compared with a little more than six months for patients treated with two other standard drugs, Tykerb and Xeloda.

Overall, patients taking Kadcyla lived about 2.6 years, compared with 2 years for patients taking the other drugs.

FDA specifically approved the drug for patients with advanced breast cancer who have already been treated with Herceptin and taxane, a widely used chemotherapy drug. Doctors are not required to follow FDA prescribing guidelines, and cancer researchers say the drug could have great potential in patients with earlier forms of breast cancer

Kadcyla will carry a boxed warning, the most severe type, alerting doctors and patients that the drug can cause liver toxicity, heart problems and potentially death. The drug can also cause severe birth defects and should not be used by pregnant women.

Kadcyla was developed by South San Francisco-based Genentech using drug-binding technology licensed from Waltham, Mass.-based ImmunoGen. The company developed the chemical that keeps the drug cocktail together and is scheduled to receive a $10.5 million payment from Genentech on the FDA decision. The company will also receive additional royalties on the drug's sales.

Shares of ImmunoGen Inc. rose 2 cents to $14.32 in afternoon trading. The stock has ttraded in a 52-wek range of $10.85 to $18.10.

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Daniel Radcliffe Dances to Nelly in West Hollywood

Caught in the Act

02/24/2013 at 04:00 PM EST

We're not in Hogwarts anymore.

Daniel Radcliffe made an unexpected appearance at Bootsy Bellows in West Hollywood on Friday night. Arriving with a male pal around 1:40 a.m., the Harry Potter star was "in party mode but really friendly," an onlooker tells PEOPLE.

Wearing a long-sleeved black shirt and jeans, the actor hung out at a table in the club's back VIP room, where he made himself vodka cocktails.

As DJ BeeFowl spun hit after hit, Radcliffe "started singing and dancing at the table to Nelly's 'Country Grammar' and 'Ride Wit Me'," the source adds. "He introduced himself to people at his table casually as 'Dan.' "

As the evening progressed, Girl Meets World star Ben Savage chatted up Radcliffe and the two shared a laugh.

The next song to make Radcliffe dance was Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit."

The source adds, "He was very happy-go-lucky," and Radcliffe "posed for a few photos and stayed at the club until closing time."

– Jennifer Garcia

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Microsoft to reportedly unveil next Xbox at April event

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Palestinians Dispute Israeli Finding on Prisoner’s Death

JERUSALEM — The Israeli Health Ministry said Sunday night that preliminary autopsy findings could not determine the cause of death of a 30-year-old Palestinian prisoner, which Israeli officials had at first attributed to a heart attack. But Palestinian officials said the lack of heart damage coupled with bruising on the man’s chest, back and neck suggested that he was tortured during interrogation.

“The signs that appeared during the autopsy show clearly that he was subjected to severe torture that led immediately to his death,” Issa Qaraka, the Palestinian minister of prisoner affairs, said at an evening news conference in Ramallah, after being briefed by a Palestinian pathologist who attended the autopsy of the prisoner, Arafat Jaradat, who died Saturday.

“I hold Israel fully responsible for killing Arafat Jaradat,” added Mr. Qaraka, who earlier on Sunday called for an international investigation into the death. “The Israeli story was forged and full of lies.”

The 4,500 Palestinians in Israeli jails refused meals on Sunday to protest Mr. Jaradat’s death, and hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated in several cities and villages in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

After days of such demonstrations, which have included violent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers and settlers, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s special envoy, Isaac Molho, sent a message to the Palestinian leadership on Sunday that Israeli officials described as an “unequivocal demand to restore quiet.” Israel also transferred to the Palestinian Authority $100 million in tax revenue it had been withholding.

But a senior Israeli official said the government would not accede to Palestinian requests to release four prisoners who have been on a long-term hunger strike or 123 people who have been detained since before the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993. “Some of these people are accused of very heinous crimes,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter with the news media. “They’re saying that every Palestinian hunger striker should have a get-out-of-jail-free card. You can’t have a system like that. It’s not sustainable.”

After weeks of intensifying protests in solidarity with the hunger strikers, attention turned Sunday to Mr. Jaradat, who relatives said worked at a gas station, was the father of a 4-year-old girl and a 2-year-old boy, and came from a family in which all the men had spent time in Israeli jails. He was arrested last Monday over throwing stones at Israeli cars near a West Bank settlement during November’s conflict between Israel and the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian officials said that Mr. Jaradat admitted the stone-throwing but denied heaving fire bombs. He also confessed to tossing rocks in a 2006 protest, they said. His detention was extended 12 days at a hearing on Thursday, during which his lawyer said that Mr. Jaradat complained of severe pain in his back and neck that he attributed to his interrogation.

“When he was under interrogation, the interrogator told him, ‘Say goodbye to your kids,’ ” Mr. Jaradat’s uncle, Musa, said at a news conference on Sunday morning.

Mr. Qaraka, the prisoner affairs minister, said Sunday night that the autopsy showed “severe” bruising in multiple areas: the right side of the chest, the upper right part of the back, upper left shoulder and along the spine near the bottom of the neck. The pathologist reported no blood clotting or sign of heart damage, he added, but did see two broken ribs, an injury inside the lower lip and blood around the nostrils.

The Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, issued a statement expressing “deep sorrow and shock” over Mr. Jaradat’s death, saying there was a “need to promptly disclose the true reasons that led to his martyrdom.”

Few issues resonate more deeply in Palestinian society than the plight of prisoners: about 800,000 have been detained in Israeli jails since 1967, according to Palestinian leaders; Mr. Jaradat was the 203rd to die in that time.

Several leaders and commentators warned Sunday that the death, coming amid a severe financial crisis in the West Bank, could lead to extended protests, with most predicting a largely nonviolent movement of civil disobedience like the one Palestinians undertook from 1987 to 1993 rather than the campaign of suicide bombings that began in 2000.

“I know these guys and I see the signs,” Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, a left-leaning member of Israel’s Parliament and a former defense minister, said on Israel Radio.

Alex Fishman, a columnist, wrote on Sunday in the newspaper Yediot Aharanot, “The highway leading to an intifada is wide open,” adding that Mr. Jaradat’s death “is liable to become the opening shot.”

Ghassan Khatib, a Palestinian analyst, pointed out that in addition to mounting outrage over the treatment of prisoners and violence by Israeli settlers, the Palestinian Authority’s failure to issue paychecks on time had prompted teachers to call a strike starting Tuesday; health care workers are already in the middle of a two-week walkout.

Nabil A. Shaath, the Palestinian commissioner for international relations, said in an interview that the West Bank leadership was “doing our best to keep calm” and that “violent confrontation absolutely is not our plan.”

“I don’t know how much people can be contained,” Mr. Shaath said of the Jaradat case. “I don’t think anybody is planning an intifada. The question is how much accidents, incidents like this might lead to an anger that can explode.”

Jodi Rudoren reported from Jerusalem, and Khaled Abu Aker from Ramallah, West Bank. Fares Akram contributed reporting from the Gaza Strip.

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New toll lanes open on 10 Freeway

Los Angeles County's venture into toll roads advanced early Saturday with the opening of 14 miles of express lanes on the San Bernardino Freeway — the second project of its type to begin operation in the region since November.

At 12:01 a.m., the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority allowed drivers to travel the 10 Freeway's new high occupancy toll lanes — so-called HOT lanes — between Interstate 605 in El Monte and Alameda Street in downtown Los Angeles.

"This shows we are willing to address traffic, gridlock and congestion in the region," said Los Angeles Mayor and MTA board member Antonio Villaraigosa at a dedication ceremony in El Monte on Friday. "Other cities are going to do this across the county. We are going to see smarter use of highways."

The two westbound and two eastbound "Metro ExpressLanes" will be open to solo motorists who pay a toll, but they will be free for cars carrying at least two passengers.

During peak travel times, however, only carpools of three or more people will be able to use the lanes without paying. Van pools and motorcyclists also can enter the lanes toll free.

Using congestion pricing, motorists will pay anywhere from $0.25 a mile during off-peak periods to $1.40 a mile during the height of rush hour. MTA officials estimate that the average one-way cost should range between $4 and $7.

Setting tolls based on the volume of traffic is designed to maintain speeds of no less than 45 mph in the lanes. If the speed falls below that level, solo motorists will be prohibited from entering the lanes until the minimum speed resumes.

Motorists interested in the express lanes must open a FasTrak account with the MTA and make a $40 deposit to obtain a transponder, an electronic device that automatically bills their accounts whenever the lanes are used. Drivers can adjust the transponder to show how many people are in the vehicle, so the charges can be adjusted. Information is available online at metroexpresslanes.net.

The county marked its entry into the use of tollways on Nov. 10, when the MTA opened its first express lanes along 11 miles of the Harbor Freeway between Adams Boulevard in Los Angeles and the Harbor Gateway Transit Center in the South Bay.

The lanes on both freeways are part of a $210-million demonstration project funded largely by the federal government. It includes upgrading transit and rail stations, 59 new clean-fuel buses, the $60-million El Monte Bus Station, highway ramp improvements and 100 new vanpools.

MTA officials said the express lanes on the 10 and 110 will cost $7 million to $10 million a year to operate, but should generate $18 million to $20 million in revenue, money that can be reinvested in both freeway corridors. So far, more than 100,000 people have obtained transponders for the lanes, officials said.

During the next year, the express-lane projects will be evaluated to determine whether the program should be continued and expanded to other freeways in the county.

"We expect it will be totally successful," said Victor Mendez, head of the Federal Highway Administration. "The project offers commuters a variety of choices, not just the highway."

dan.weikel@latimes.com

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FDA approves new targeted breast cancer drug

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration has approved a first-of-a-kind breast cancer medication that targets tumor cells while sparing healthy ones.

The drug Kadcyla from Roche combines the established drug Herceptin with a powerful chemotherapy drug and a third chemical linking the medicines together. The chemical keeps the cocktail intact until it binds to a cancer cell, delivering a potent dose of anti-tumor poison.

Cancer researchers say the drug is an important step forward because it delivers more medication while reducing the unpleasant side effects of chemotherapy.

"This antibody goes seeking out the tumor cells, gets internalized and then explodes them from within. So it's very kind and gentle on the patients — there's no hair loss, no nausea, no vomiting," said Dr. Melody Cobleigh of Rush University Medical Center. "It's a revolutionary way of treating cancer."

Cobleigh helped conduct the key studies of the drug at the Chicago facility.

The FDA approved the new treatment for about 20 percent of breast cancer patients with a form of the disease that is typically more aggressive and less responsive to hormone therapy. These patients have tumors that overproduce a protein known as HER-2. Breast cancer is the second most deadly form of cancer in U.S. women, and is expected to kill more than 39,000 Americans this year, according to the National Cancer Institute.

The approval will help Roche's Genentech unit build on the blockbuster success of Herceptin, which has long dominated the breast cancer marketplace. The drug had sales of roughly $6 billion last year.

Genentech said Friday that Kadcyla will cost $9,800 per month, compared to $4,500 per month for regular Herceptin. The company estimates a full course of Kadcyla, about nine months of medicine, will cost $94,000.

FDA scientists said they approved the drug based on company studies showing Kadcyla delayed the progression of breast cancer by several months. Researchers reported last year that patients treated with the drug lived 9.6 months before death or the spread of their disease, compared with a little more than six months for patients treated with two other standard drugs, Tykerb and Xeloda.

Overall, patients taking Kadcyla lived about 2.6 years, compared with 2 years for patients taking the other drugs.

FDA specifically approved the drug for patients with advanced breast cancer who have already been treated with Herceptin and taxane, a widely used chemotherapy drug. Doctors are not required to follow FDA prescribing guidelines, and cancer researchers say the drug could have great potential in patients with earlier forms of breast cancer

Kadcyla will carry a boxed warning, the most severe type, alerting doctors and patients that the drug can cause liver toxicity, heart problems and potentially death. The drug can also cause severe birth defects and should not be used by pregnant women.

Kadcyla was developed by South San Francisco-based Genentech using drug-binding technology licensed from Waltham, Mass.-based ImmunoGen. The company developed the chemical that keeps the drug cocktail together and is scheduled to receive a $10.5 million payment from Genentech on the FDA decision. The company will also receive additional royalties on the drug's sales.

Shares of ImmunoGen Inc. rose 2 cents to $14.32 in afternoon trading. The stock has ttraded in a 52-wek range of $10.85 to $18.10.

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From Homeless in the Congo to the Oscars Red Carpet: The Story You Must Read Before Tomorrow

Stylewatch
Style News Now

02/23/2013 at 05:40 PM ET

Courtesy Rachel Mwanza

One of the best stories from this year’s Oscars ceremony isn’t taking place on screen, but rather on the red carpet.

Rachel Mwanza, the 16-year-old star of the Best Foreign Language Film nominee War Witch, will be joining her fellow nominees in L.A. after obtaining a visa from the war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo just days before the Oscars.

The young actress was “discovered” by the War Witch team from a documentary called Kinshasa Kids, which portrayed the life of Mwanza and other children living on the streets in the Congo.

Since being cast in the film, in which she plays a child kidnapped and enslaved to a life of guerilla warfare, her life has changed dramatically — from having a home and education paid for to winning a best actress award at the Berlin Film Festival.

And since her flight arrived late Friday night, she needed a red carpet-worthy dress quickly, which is where Rent the Runway stepped in.

The designer rental service rushed Mwanza several dresses to wear to the Independent Spirit Awards Saturday, from which she chose Kate Spade New York’s “Tiebreaker” style, adding Chamak by Priya Kakkar bangles and a Judith Leiber clutch.

“I’m so excited to be in Los Angeles. I’ve never seen the ocean before!” Mwanza tells PEOPLE through a translator. “I’m tired from my long trip, but way too excited to rest!”

She shared exclusive shots with PEOPLE (above) of her trying-on process, including shots of her caretaker “Mama” helping her zip into her final dress, and the many jewels Rent the Runway sent her to choose from.

And it didn’t take much to get Mwanza ready for her high-profile debut: “I’m going to work it on the red carpet,” she says. “I’ve been practicing my poses!”

The one disappointment from her trip so far? No sightings of a certain superstar. “Beyoncé is my favorite in the whole world. Why is she not here?!” Mwanza jokes.

Below, see a shot of Mwanza and her War Witch producers Marie-Claude Poulin and Pierre Even at the Independent Spirit Awards, and be sure to watch her film, which will be On Demand beginning Tuesday and in select theaters March 1.

And keep an eye out for her at the Oscars Sunday night, where she’ll be wearing a top-secret dress made for her by an African designer. Can’t wait to see her poses!

Courtesy Rachel Mwanza

–Alex Apatoff

PHOTOS: SEE MORE OSCARS STYLE HERE!

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