NEWS | IN BRIEF
BlackBerry’s profits surge
Research In Motion (RIM) posted a big jump in profit and issued an even stronger outlook yesterday, as sturdy demand from holiday shoppers helped the BlackBerry maker fend off the competition. For its third quarter, ended 28 November, RIM said profit rose to $628.4m , or $1.10 a share, from $396.3m, or 69 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 41 per cent to $3.92bn . RIM sold more than 10 million BlackBerry phones during the third quarter, beating the previous record of 8.3 million, set during the second quarter.
Stanford trial date set
Alleged swindler Allen Stanford will spend more than a year in custody after a US judge yesterday set his criminal trial for January 2011. “This criminal case is going to get under way and it is going to go on schedule,” US District Judge David Hittner said at a court hearing. The date was a compromise between Stanford’s attorneys, who said they wanted the trial to start in summer 2011, and US prosecutors, who pushed for a September 2010 date.