Susan Rice withdraws from Secretary of State consideration

WASHINGTON – Susan Rice, who came under heavy criticism for her defense of the Obama administration after armed militants killed four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, withdrew her name from consideration for secretary of State on Thursday as the president began to narrow his choices for key Cabinet positions.

“If nominated, I am now convinced that the confirmation process would be lengthy, disruptive and costly – to you and to our most pressing national and international priorities,” Rice wrote in a one-page letter to President Obama. “That tradeoff is simply not worth it to our country.”

In a statement, Obama praised Rice, who is the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, as a key member of his Cabinet and “an advisor and friend.”

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“While I deeply regret the unfair and misleading attacks on Susan Rice in recent weeks, her decision demonstrates the strength of her character, and an admirable commitment to rise above the politics of the moment to put our national interests first,” Obama said.

The decision leaves Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) as the leading contender to head the State Department after Hillary Rodham Clinton steps down early next year. That, in turn, would require a special election in Massachusetts and likely give Scott Brown, a moderate Republican who lost his Senate seat to Democrat Elizabeth Warren in November, another chance to run.  

White House aides said the president also is now likely to choose either Chuck Hagel, a Republican and former U.S. senator from Nebraska, or Michele Flournoy, formerly the highest-ranking woman at the Defense Department, to replace Leon E. Panetta as secretary of Defense. If nominated, Flournoy would be the first woman to run the Pentagon.

Rice drew flak after she appeared on several Sunday TV talk shows five days after militants stormed a U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi in eastern Libya on Sept. 11, killing U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.

Although Rice relied on so-called talking points given to her by the CIA, a number of Republican lawmakers said she had falsely described the attacks as spontaneous protests and not a calculated act of terrorism by Libyan extremists. Critics said she had tried to downplay the nature of the attacks to protect Obama during his reelection campaign.

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Rice later agreed that her statements were incorrect, but blamed the information she was given by the intelligence community. It did little to stanch the criticism, however.

As speculation grew that Rice was a likely candidate to replace Clinton, she tried to disarm her sharpest critics by meeting senior Republicans in closed-door meetings on Capitol Hill. But Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) all said they were dissatisfied, putting her expected nomination in jeopardy.

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[For the Record, 2:27 p.m. PST  Dec. 13: This post originally referred to Michele Flournoy as the current highest-ranking woman at the Defense Department, a position she formerly held before aiding Obama's reelection campaign.]

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HP Spying Scandal Ends With a Whimper

The HP boardroom spying scandal once transfixed the national media. It sparked Congressional hearings and lawsuits, and it changed the law. But it ended on Thursday in a mostly empty San Jose, California courtroom with a three-month conviction for Bryan Wagner, the low-level foot soldier who called up telephone companies under false pretenses to obtain the telephone records of HP board members, journalists and their families.

Wagner, a one-time private investigator from Everton, Colorado, will be the only person to serve jail time in the scandal, which dates back to 2005, when former HP Chairwoman Patricia Dunn launched a secret campaign, dubbed Operation Kona, to uncover boardroom leakers. Criminal charges against HP executives were eventually dropped, and the only other people to be convicted in the case, Wagner’s bosses, Joseph and Mathew DePante, were sentenced to three years probation in July.

Speaking before his sentencing, an unemotional Wagner, his hair now salted with grey, said he was guilty of “moral ineptness,” and he apologized to his victims, including former CNET reporter Dawn Kawamoto, the only victim to address the court on Thursday. “I made mistakes and I apologize for these,” he said. “I was raised differently from what this would show.”

Wagner was introduced to the concept of obtaining data using false pretenses, or pretexting, by his mother’s stepbrother, James Rapp, but he considered it to be “an unsavory but gray area,” his lawyer Cynthia Lie argued in court.

Wagner’s sentence was much less severe than it could have been. After pleading guilty to one count of aggravated identity theft back in 2007, he’d been facing a mandatory minimum of two years in prison. And his case wasn’t helped by the fact that trashed his computer’s hard drive before investigators could examine it, and was on probation for a drunk driving conviction at the time of the pretexting. But on Thursday, federal prosecutors asked the judge in the case to set aside that mandatory minimum because Wagner had been of “substantial assistance” to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. After his jail time, Wagner must serve two years of supervisory release.

After the sentencing was announced, Kawamoto told Wired that she was unsatisfied. “I’m not happy with the sentence,” she said “I think they should have gone for the maximum.” She told the judge she was “very disappointed” that no one from HP had been convicted of any crime in the matter.

Early on, Wagner’s attorney told the judge: “This case concludes not with a bang, but a whimper.”

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Documents: Prisoner plotted to kill Justin Bieber

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) — An imprisoned man whose infatuation with Justin Bieber included a tattoo of the pop star on his leg has told investigators in New Mexico he hatched a plot to kill him.

Court documents in a New Mexico district court say Dana Martin told investigators he persuaded a man he met in prison and the man’s nephew to kill Bieber, Bieber’s bodyguard and two others not connected to the pop star.

He told investigators that Mark Staake and Tanner Ruane headed east, planning to be near a Bieber concert scheduled in New York City. They missed a turn and crossed into Canada from Vermont. Staake was arrested on an outstanding warrant. Ruane was arrested later.

The two men face multiple charges stemming for the alleged plot.

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World’s Population Living Longer, New Report Suggests

A sharp decline in deaths from malnutrition and diseases like measles and tuberculosis has caused a shift in global mortality patterns over the past 20 years, according to a new report, with far more of the world’s population now living into old age and dying from diseases more associated with rich countries, like cancer and heart disease.

The shift reflects improvements in sanitation, medical services and access to food throughout the developing world, as well as the success of broad public health efforts like vaccine programs. The results are dramatic: infant mortality has declined by more than half between 1990 and 2010, and malnutrition, the No. 1 risk factor for death and years of life lost in 1990, has fallen to No. 8.

At the same time, chronic diseases like cancer now account for about two out of every three deaths worldwide, up from just over half in 1990. Eight million people died of cancer in 2010, 38 percent more than in 1990. Diabetes claimed 1.3 million lives in 2010, double the number in 1990.

But while developing countries made big strides – the average age of death in Brazil and Paraguay, for example, jumped to 63 in 2010, up from 28 in 1970 – the United States stagnated. American women registered the smallest gains in life expectancy of all high-income countries between 1990 and 2010. The two years of life they gained was less than in Cyprus, where women gained 2.3 years of life, and Canada, where women gained 2.4 years. The slow increase caused American women to fall to 36th place in the report’s global ranking of life expectancy, down from 22nd in 1990.

“It’s alarming just how little progress there has been for women in the United States,” said Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, a health research organization financed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation at the University of Washington that coordinated the report. Rising rates of obesity among American women and the legacy of smoking, a habit women in this country formed later than men, are among the factors contributing to the stagnation, he said.

The World Health Organization issued a statement Thursday saying that some of the estimates in the report differ substantially from those done by United Nations agencies, though others are similar. All comprehensive estimates of global mortality rely heavily on statistical modeling because only 34 countries – representing about 15 percent of the world’s population – produce quality cause-of-death data.

Health experts from more than 300 institutions contributed to the report, which measured disease and mortality for populations in more than 180 countries. It was published Thursday in the Lancet, a British health publication.

The one exception to the trend was sub-Saharan Africa, where infectious diseases, childhood illnesses and maternal causes of death still account for about 70 percent of all illness. In contrast, they account for just one-third in South Asia, and less than a fifth in all other regions. Sub-Saharan Africa also lagged in mortality gains, with the average age of death there rising by fewer than 10 years from 1970 to 2010, compared with a more than 25-year increase in Latin America, Asia and North Africa.

The change means that people are living longer, an outcome that public health experts praised. But it also raises troubling questions. Behavior affects people’s risks of developing noncommunicable diseases like cancer, heart disease and diabetes, and public health experts say it is far harder to get people to change their ways than to administer a vaccine that protects children from an infectious disease like measles.

“Adult mortality is a much harder task for the public health systems in the world,” said Colin Mathers, a senior scientist at the World Health Organization in Geneva. “It’s not something that medical services can address as easily.”

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European Leaders Hail Accord on Banking Supervision

BRUSSELS — European Union leaders gathering here Thursday for their year-end summit meeting hailed an agreement to place euro zone banks under a single supervisor, calling it a concrete measure to maintain the viability of the currency as well as a step in laying the groundwork for a broader economic union.

Pool photograph by Michael Euler

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and François Hollande, the French president, conferring on Thursday at a summit meeting of European leaders. "It's a good day for Europe," Mr. Hollande said.

The pact was hashed out in an all-night session of finance ministers that ended Thursday morning after France and Germany made significant compromises. Under the agreement, between 100 and 200 large banks in the euro zone will fall under the direct supervision of the European Central Bank.

A round of talks a week earlier broke up amid French-German discord over how many banks in the currency union should be covered by the new system.

In a concession to Germany, the finance ministers agreed that thousands of smaller banks would be primarily overseen by national regulators. But to satisfy the French, who wanted all euro zone banks to be held accountable, the E.C.B. would be able to take over supervision of any bank in the region at any time.

The agreement by the finance ministers, which still requires the approval of the European Parliament and some national parliaments including the German Bundestag, made it possible for E.U. leaders arriving here later Thursday to gather in a spirit unity.

“It’s a good day for Europe,” said François Hollande, the French president. “The crisis came from the banks, and mechanisms have been put in place that will mean nothing is as it was before.”

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said the agreement was “a big step toward more trust and confidence in the euro zone.” The summit meeting could now focus “on strengthening economic coordination” and “set out a road map for the coming months,” she added.

In another measure to shore up the euro, the finance ministers approved the release of nearly €50 billion, or $65 billion, in further aid to Greece, including long-delayed payments, support that is crucial for the government to avoid defaulting on its debts.

“Today is not only a new day for Greece, it is indeed a new day for Europe,” Antonis Samaras, the Greek prime minister, said ahead of the summit meeting.

But threatening to spoil the upbeat atmosphere were questions over the future leadership of Italy, where the economy is contracting, debt levels are rising, and Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister, has threatened to try to reclaim the office in an election next year.

It remained unclear Thursday whether Mr. Berlusconi would run and, if that were to happen, whether he would campaign on promises to reverse reforms put in place by Mario Monti, the current prime minister. Even so, the re-emergence of Mr. Berlusconi — who attended a summit meeting of center-right parties in Brussels on Thursday — could destabilize markets and even rekindle the financial crisis.

The bank supervision plan was first discussed in June and wrapped up in a matter of months — record time by the glacial standards of E.U. rulemaking. The agreement should serve as a springboard for leaders to weigh further steps toward economic integration during their meeting.

Such measures could include a unified system, and perhaps shared euro area resources, to ensure failing banks are closed in an orderly fashion. This could be followed, in time, by measures intended to reinforce economic and monetary union, including, possibly, the creation of a shared fund that could be used to shore up the economies of vulnerable members of the euro zone.

Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, said the agreement on banking supervision “marks an important step towards a stable economic and monetary union, and toward further European integration.” But he noted that governments and the European Commission still had to work on the details of the supervision mechanism.

The new system should be fully operational by March 2014, but ministers left the door open for the E.C.B. to push that date back if the central bank would “not be ready for exercising in full its tasks.”

A series of compromises were needed for finance ministers to reach agreement on banking supervision.

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U.S. official: Syrian government fired Scud missiles at rebels

WASHINGTON -- The Syrian government has fired half a dozen Scud missiles at insurgents in recent days, a U.S. official said Wednesday.

The missiles were launched from near Damascus into rebel-held areas of northern Syria, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing intelligence information.

Although recent rebel advances have raised fears that Syrian President Bashar Assad might turn to chemical weapons, the official said there was no sign that the missiles carried chemical agents.

The use of Scud missiles would mark an escalation in the Syrian conflict, which has lasted more more than a year and a half.

Scuds, first developed by the Soviet Union, are hefty, notoriously inaccurate ballistic missiles. They are often labeled as “terror weapons.”

On Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said he could not confirm the reports that Scud missiles had been used, but said that, “if true, this would be the latest desperate act from a regime that has shown utter disregard for innocent life.”

“The idea that the Syrian regime would launch missiles within its borders at its own people is stunning, desperate and a completely disproportionate military escalation,” Carney said.

He said Syrian government efforts to defeat the opposition with military force were failing as the rebels became more unified and organized. More than 100 countries reportedly recognized a Syrian opposition coalition Wednesday, shortly after President Obama stated that the group formed in November was the “legitimate representative” of the Syrian people.

“We are working with our international partners to help strengthen the opposition and to further isolate and sanction the Assad regime,” Carney said. “Again, if this -- if this proves to be true, it's just another identification of the depravity of Assad and his cronies.”

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Emily Alpert in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

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Chinese Phone Packs All the Best Specs Into a Sexy Package

Oppo, the Chinese company making the best Blu-ray players you’ve never heard of, is making an Android smartphone that, well, it hopes you’ll hear about early next year.

The Oppo Find 5, unveiled Wednesday in Beijing, looks like a helluva phone, with damn near every awesome spec you can pack into a handset nowadays. It is the company’s first official foray into the U.S. phone market after years of making Blu-ray players praised by videophiles and audiophiles alike.

As the name suggests, the Find 5 has a 5-inch display with a 1080p display, something we saw on the impressive HTC Droid DNA. Inside of the Find 5′s sharply designed chassis, you’ll find Qualcomm’s speedy quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, 2GB of RAM, 16 gigs of storage and an NFC chip. Yes, the Droid DNA has the same internals. But Oppo one-ups that handset by giving the Find 5 a 13-megapixel rear shooter. There’s a 1.9-megapixel camera up front.

The phone uses Google’s Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system and, like Google’s Nexus 4, will run on HSPA+ and GSM networks but not LTE.

Although the Find 5, which will sell for $500 unlocked, will be capable of running on AT&T and T-Mobile networks, Oppo didn’t say whether the phone will actually be offered by those carriers. AT&T officials couldn’t be reached for comment, and T-Mobile had nothing to say. Still, the two companies’ logos appear on Oppo’s bare-bones U.S. website.

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“Lincoln,” “Les Miserables,” “Playbook” lead acting nominations

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Hollywood‘s actors cast their net wide on Wednesday, nominating performers from big awards contenders “Lincoln” and musical “Les Miserables” for Screen Actors Guild honors while also singling out the likes of Denzel Washington and Javier Bardem.

“Lincoln,” “Les Miserables” and comedy “Silver Linings Playbook” led the nominations for the SAG awards with four apiece, including the top prize of best movie ensemble cast.

Joining them with two nominations each were the cast of Iranian hostage drama “Argo” and, in a surprise choice, British comedy “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.”

The awards from the Screen Actors Guild are among the most-watched honors during Hollywood film awards season leading up to the Academy Awards because actors make up the largest voting group when the Oscars come around in February.

SAG voters focus on performances rather than directing and writing, meaning that action and effects-heavy films like “The Hobbit” are usually sidelined.

Consequently, SAG largely shunned the expected Oscar contender “Zero Dark Thirty” about the U.S. hunt for Osama bin Laden, giving it just one nomination for Jessica Chastain’s performance as a CIA agent.

But the latest James Bond blockbuster “Skyfall” made it onto SAG‘s list, with nominations for its stunt ensemble and Spanish actor Bardem’s supporting turn as blond-haired villain Silva.

Other perceived Oscar-worthy movies, including slavery era Western “Django Unchained,” went unmentioned, while cult drama “The Master” had just one nomination – for actor Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Nicole Kidman made the best supporting actress list for her turn in the steamy but little-seen independent movie “The Paperboy,” while Britain’s Helen Mirren was recognized for her portrayal of Alfred Hitchcock’s long-suffering wife in “Hitchcock.”

The SAG awards will be given out in Los Angeles on January 27 in a live telecast on the TBS and TNT networks.

Golden Globe nominations are announced on Thursday and Oscar nominations will be revealed on January 10.

‘LINCOLN’ PICKS UP STEAM

“Lincoln,” director Steven Spielberg’s well-reviewed film about U.S. President Abraham Lincoln‘s battle to outlaw slavery, has been picking up multiple accolades from U.S. critics in the busy Hollywood awards season.

On Wednesday, it brought SAG nominations for lead actor Daniel Day-Lewis and supporting actors Sally Field as his wife, and Tommy Lee Jones as powerful Congressman Thaddeus Stevens.

Hugh Jackman was nominated for best actor while Anne Hathaway is in the race for her supporting role in the movie adaptation of hit stage musical “Les Miserables.”

Other actors nominated on Wednesday included the stars of quirky comedy “Silver Linings Playbook” – Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert DeNiro. John Hawkes and Helen Hunt also have a stake, for playing a disabled man and his sex therapist in heart-warming independent movie “The Sessions.”

“Being recognized by your peers is something I could only dream of happening and to be included in this group of actors is not only humbling but quite frankly, surreal,” Cooper, a first-time SAG nominees, said in a statement.

Washington, a two-time Oscar winner, was nominated for playing an alcoholic pilot in “Flight,” a role that has been largely overlooked in early critics award.

Perhaps the biggest surprise on Wednesday was “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” the story of a group of elderly Britons who retire to a ramshackle Indian hotel.

The film, which boasts a strong British cast including Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson and Bill Nighy, had two nominations – best ensemble and best supporting actress for Maggie Smith.

Smith also was nominated in SAG‘s television category for her role as a sarcastic countess in period drama “Downton Abbey.”

The popular British show was among the picks for ensemble acting in the TV category.

Other TV drama nominations went to the casts of “Boardwalk Empire,” “Homeland,” “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad.”

In TV comedy, old favorites “30 Rock,” “Glee,” “The Big Bang Theory,” “Modern Family,” “Nurse Jackie” and “The Office” were nominated for their ensemble casts.

(Editing by Xavier Briand and Bill Trott)

Movies News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Police Commission eases LAPD's illegal immigrant policy

The Los Angeles Police Commission on Tuesday approved a plan from Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck to no longer turn over illegal immigrants arrested in low-level crimes to federal authorities for deportation.

The new rules, which are expected to go into effect early next month and affect about 400 people arrested each year, mark a significant move by the state's most influential local police agency to distance itself from federal immigration policies that Beck has said unfairly affects undocumented immigrants who are caught committing petty offenses.

For years, police departments have sent fingerprint information on every person arrested to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials. Federal officials, in turn, use the fingerprints to identify people suspected of being in the country illegally and often ask local agencies to put a 48-hour hold -- a detainer in law enforcement jargon -- on people.

These detainers authorized police to keep suspected illegal immigrants in custody for 48 hours longer than they otherwise would have been held in order to give ICE officials time to take them into federal custody.

Until now, the LAPD honored all ICE detainer requests, regardless of what offense the person was suspected of committing. When Beck announced the outline of his plan in October, he said he supported the basic idea of cooperating with federal officials, but believed ICE officials had failed to distinguish between violent criminals and those accused of low-level offenses.

Under the terms of the new policy, the LAPD will continue to honor detainer requests for anyone arrested on suspicion of a felony offense, a misdemeanor charge with a bail above $5,000, or a vehicle violation with a bail of more than $2,500, according to a report presented to the commission at a meeting Tuesday. Documented gang members and people with previous felony convictions will also be detained regardless of their offense.

Otherwise, unless ICE officials can spell out special circumstances that require someone be held, the department will release people after they have been booked and ordered to appear in court for the alleged crime.

Several immigrant-rights advocates spoke out against the plan, claiming it did not do enough to protect illegal immigrants.

Commissioner John Mack called the plan "an enlightened first step," telling the critics that the policy "was not set in stone" and may be revised again in the future if police officials believe it is warranted.

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Getting Your DNA Scanned Now Costs Less Than an iPhone 5

The price of unlocking the secrets of your DNA has dropped to stocking-stuffer range as Google-backed 23andMe said today that a major new investment was allowing them to offer their personal gene scans for $99.

The company co-founded and run by Anne Wojcicki, wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, announced Tuesday that it had raised $50 million in its latest round of venture capital funding. Wojcicki told WIRED the money was a “game-changer” because it allows the company to bring the scans down to $99 from the previous regular price of $299, effective today.

The goal, she said, was to reach 1 million customers by the end of 2013, up from 180,000 now. The point isn’t just to expand the customer base, but to expand the 80-person company’s database of genetic information. The more DNA data, the company hopes, the better the chances of making discoveries that reveal new connections between human genetics and human health.

“With a million individuals actively engaged, it really sets the stage for an era of molecular medicine,” says Wojcicki — an era that she and others who believe in the promise of personal genomics hope will mean medical decisions tailored to individuals based on their specific genetic makeup.

The scanning service offered by 23andMe doesn’t sequence a person’s entire 3 billion-letter genome. Instead, the scans look at one million sections along the length of a person’s DNA where research has located genetic variations that contribute to specific health risks and physical traits. The company analyzes those variations and reports back more than 200 findings, from whether you have a genetic predisposition to flush red when you drink alcohol to whether you carry the mutation that can cause cystic fibrosis in your children.

You also have the option to allow those findings — stripped of personally identifying information — to become part of 23andMe’s database. Though your genes are by definition personal information, Wojcicki says about 90 percent of customers opt in to share their results. This is good for 23andMe, since the profit potential of selling personal gene scans pales next to the possibility of fishing a major medical breakthrough out of that sea of DNA data.

But predicting the likelihood of such a breakthrough remains more art than science. When it launched five years ago, 23andMe made a splash both because of the Google family ties and because of the excitement surrounding then then-new field of personal genomics made possible by the radical drop in price of DNA sequencing. Since then, the cost of reading the As, Cs, Ts and Gs that encode life’s instructions has only gotten cheaper. But understanding what those instructions mean has proven more complicated than originally hoped.

Along with setbacks in the science, 23andMe itself has endured its share of troubles. From the outset, some critics complained the company overpromised how much insight its results really offered. The company has always made the disclaimer that its results were meant for “informational purposes” only and that no one should make any medical decisions without consulting a doctor. But such warnings weren’t enough for members of Congress, or the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which warned 23andMe and several other companies in 2010 that its products qualified as medical tests and were therefore subject to the agency’s approval process.

Since then, however, 23andMe’s scans have remained for sale, even as the company has sometimes struggled not just with outside forces but to define its relevance as the promise of gene-based personalized medicine has been slower to materialize than some had hoped. Wojcicki says the company is still in discussions with the FDA and that she’s pleased with the agency’s willingness to stay engaged with the issues.

Her optimism also shows in the money that she and her husband both put up as part of the $50 million. Other backers behind this latest funding include New Enterprise Associates, Google Ventures and MPM Capital, all of which were already investors in 23andMe. The company also welcomed a new believer this round: Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, a major investor in Facebook, Zynga, Groupon and Twitter, among other companies.

It will be interesting to track how 23andMe tries to convince more than 800,000 consumers that $now is the right time to get their DNA scanned, especially when so many shinier tech baubles beckon for about the same amount of money. But with $50 million and some of the heaviest heavyweights in Silicon Valley behind it, the company has a whole new chance to make the case that the future of medicine is not only here but available for the low, low price of 99 bucks.

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