Personal, strategic motivations for Obama in Asia

BANGKOK (AP) — For President Barack Obama, expanding U.S. influence in Asia is more than just countering China or opening up new markets to American businesses. It's also about building his legacy.

Fresh off re-election, Obama will make a significant investment in that effort during a quick run through Southeast Asia that begins Sunday. In addition to stops in Thailand and Cambodia, the president will make a historic visit to Myanmar, where his administration has led efforts to ease the once pariah nation out of international isolation.

The trip marks Obama's fourth visit to Asia in as many years. He kicks off his schedule in Bangkok. With a second term now guaranteed, aides say Obama will be a regular visitor to the region over the next four years as well.

"Continuing to fill in our pivot to Asia will be a critical part of the president's second term and ultimately his foreign policy legacy," said Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser.

The president's motivations in Asia are both personal and strategic.

Obama, who was born in Hawaii and lived in Indonesia as a child, has called himself America's first "Pacific president." The region gives him an opportunity to open up new markets for U.S. companies, promote democracy and ease fears of China's rise by boosting U.S. military presence in area.

The president, like many of his predecessors, had hoped to cement his foreign policy legacy in the Middle East. He visited two major allies in the region, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, on one of his first overseas trips as president and attempted to revive peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

But those talks stalled, and fresh outbursts of violence between Israel and the Palestinians make the prospects of a peace accord appear increasingly slim. The Obama-backed Arab Spring democracy push has had mixed results so far, with Islamists taking power in Egypt and progress in Libya tainted by the deadly attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. Obama hasn't been back to the region since 2009.

In Asia, however, Obama will be viewed as something of an elder statesman when he returns less than two weeks after winning re-election. The region is undergoing significant leadership changes, most notably in China, where the Communist Party tapped new leaders last week. Japan and South Korea will both hold new elections soon.

"Most of the leaders he'll meet with will not have a tenure as long as he will as president," said Michael Green, an Asia scholar at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. "So he'll go into this in a very strong position."

The centerpiece of Obama's whirlwind Asia tour is his visit to Myanmar. It will be the first time a U.S. president has visited the former pariah state.

Myanmar has become something of a pet project for Obama and his national security aides, who have cheered the country's significant strides toward democracy. Obama lifted some U.S. penalties on Myanmar, appointed a permanent U.S. ambassador and hosted democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi at the White House this year.

Many of the same strategic motivations behind Obama's larger focus on Asia are at play in Myanmar, which is known by the U.S. as Burma.

The country long has oriented itself toward China, but the easing of sanctions gives American businesses a chance to gain a foothold there. It's also an opportunity for the Obama administration to show other nations in the region, and elsewhere in the world, that there are benefits to aligning with the U.S.

Still, there's little denying that history has been a draw for Obama's team when it comes to its dealings with Myanmar. That's led to criticism from some human rights groups that say Obama's visit is premature given that the country continues to hold political prisoners and has been unable to stem some ethnic violence.

"This trip risks being an ill-timed presidential pat on the back for a regime that has looked the other way as violence rages, destroying villages and communities just in the last few weeks," said Suzanne Nossel, the U.S.-based director of Amnesty International.

But the White House believes that "if we want to promote human rights and promote American values, we intend to do so through engagement," Rhodes said Saturday as Obama flew to Asia.

He said it was important for Obama to convey the message about "the type of action we'd like to see locked in, in Burma as it relates to political reform, as it relates to economic reform, and national reconciliation."

Obama's other stops in the region also underscore the potential pitfalls of going all-in in Asia.

Thailand's 2006 coup, which led to the ouster of the prime minister, strained relations with the U.S. and raised questions in Washington about the stability of its longtime regional ally. Cambodia, where Obama's visit also marks the first by a U.S. president, has a dismal human rights record.

White House officials have emphasized that Obama is visiting Cambodia because it is hosting the East Asia Summit, an annual meeting the U.S. now attends. Aides say the president will voice his human rights concerns during his meeting with Hun Sen, Cambodia's long-serving prime minister.

Still, human rights groups fear Obama's visit will be seen within Cambodia as an affirmation of the prime minister and a sign to opposition groups that the U.S. stands with the government, not with them.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was also traveling to Thailand where she was going to join Obama. Clinton then was to fly to Myanmar with Obama on Air Force One. It will be the last joint trip for the president and his secretary of state, the once presidential rival who went on to become Obama's peripatetic chief diplomat. Clinton is planning on leaving the administration.

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Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

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Nintendo seeks to shake up gaming again with Wii U
















LOS ANGELES (AP) — It can scan zombies, replace a TV remote, open a window into virtual worlds and shoot ninja stars across a living room. It’s the Wii U GamePad, the 10-by-5-inch touchscreen controller for the successor to the Wii out Sunday, and if you ask the brains behind the “Super Mario Bros.” about it, they say it’s going to change the way video games are made and played.


“You can’t manufacture buzz,” said Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime. “You can’t manufacture word of mouth. All we can do is to provide the product and the games to foster some sparks that hopefully enable that to happen. We think we have that with Wii U.”













Much like the iPad, the curvaceous GamePad features a touchscreen that can be manipulated with the simple tap or swipe of a finger, but it’s surrounded by the kinds of buttons, bumpers, thumbsticks and triggers that are traditionally found on a modern-day game controller. There’s also a camera, stylus, microphone, headphone jack and speakers.


While the Wii U can employ its predecessor’s motion-control remotes with a sensor bar that similarly detects them in front of the TV, the console’s focus on two-screen experiences makes it feel more like a high-definition, living-room rendition of the Nintendo DS and 3DS, the Japanese gaming giant’s dual-screen hand-held devices, than the original Wii.


“It’s a second screen like a tablet or a cellphone, but it’s different,” said Mark Bolas, professor of interactive media at the University of Southern California. “In addition to providing more information, the GamePad is also a second viewpoint into a virtual world. Nintendo is letting you turn away from the TV screen to see what’s happening with the GamePad.”


The touchscreen controller can also serve as a makeshift TV remote control and online video aggregator for services like Netflix and Amazon Instant Video. (Nintendo cheekily calls it TVii and announced Friday that it won’t be available until December.) Some games have the ability to flip-flop between the TV screen and the GamePad screen, allowing for non-gaming use of the TV.


There are limitations to the GamePad: it won’t work after it’s been moved 25 feet away from the Wii U console; it lasts about three to five hours after charging; and while its touchscreen is intuitive as those that have come before it, the GamePad is not quite as simple to use as the Wii controllers that had everyone bowling in their living rooms.


“Is the GamePad more complex than the Wii Remote was six years ago? Certainly,” said Fils-Aime. “On the other hand, I believe consumers will easily grasp the GamePad and what we’re trying to do with the varied experiences we’ll have not only at launch but over the next number of years in this system’s life.”


The abilities of the GamePad are most notably showcased by Nintendo Co. in the amusement park-themed mini-game collection “Nintendo Land,” which comes with the deluxe edition of the console. “Nintendo Land” turns the GamePad into several different tools, such as the dashboard of a spaceship or the ultimate advantage in a game of hide-and-seek.


In other titles, the controller mostly eliminates the need to pause the action to study a map in order to figure out where to go next or scour an inventory for just the right weapon. That can all be achieved simultaneously on the GamePad screen, which is best illustrated among the launch titles in Ubisoft’s survival action game “ZombiU.”


The GamePad acts as a high-tech scanner in “ZombiU” that can analyze a player’s surroundings in a version of London overrun by zombies. It pumps up the terror by drawing players’ attention away from the horrors lurking around them.


Will gamers who’ve grown up with their eyes glued to the TV and hands gripped on a controller adapt to glimpsing at another screen? The Wii U edition of “Call of Duty: Black Ops II,” for example, invites players to customize their arsenal on the fly on the GamePad, as well as engage in multiplayer matches without needing to split the TV in half.


Nintendo expects 50 games will be available for the Wii U by March 2013. There will be 23 games released alongside the console when it debuts Sunday, including the platformer “New Super Mario Bros. U,” karaoke game “Sing Party,” an “armored edition” of “Batman: Arkham City” and the Mickey Mouse adventure “Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two.”


“New consoles come along and nobody exploits their full capabilities for the first two to three years,” said Warren Spector, creative director at “Epic Mickey 2″ developer Junction Point Studios. “It’s only after you’ve had two or three projects that you fully understand what the hardware is capable of doing. We’re going to be experimenting with it more.”


Fils-Aime said he’s already envisioning ways that developers will innovate with future games. He pointed to some of the console’s features that aren’t on display in the launch line-up, such as the ability to play with two GamePads at once or utilize the console’s near-field communication technology to interact with other gadgets in the room.


“I think that developers and consumers are ready for new experiences,” said Fils-Aime. “More than anything else, I think that’s what is driving excitement for Wii U. They’ve experienced what this generation has to offer. They’re ready for something new.”


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Online:


http://www.nintendo.com/wiiu


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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/derrikjlang.


Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News



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Lady Gaga tweets some racy images before concert

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Lady Gaga's tweets were getting a lot of attention ahead of her Buenos Aires concert Friday night.

The Grammy-winning entertainer has more than 30 million followers on Twitter and that's where she shared a link this week to a short video showing her doing a striptease and fooling around in a bathtub with two other women.

She told her followers that it's a "surprise for you, almost ready for you to TASTE."

Then, in between concerts in Brazil and Argentina, she posted a picture Thursday on her Twitter page showing her wallowing in her underwear and impossibly high heels on top of the remains of what appears to be a strawberry shortcake.

"The real CAKE isn't HAVING what you want, it's DOING what you want," she tweeted.

Lady Gaga wore decidedly unglamorous baggy jeans and a blouse outside her Buenos Aires hotel Thursday as three burly bodyguards kept her fans at bay. Another pre-concert media event where she was supposed to be given "guest of honor" status by the city government Friday afternoon was cancelled.

After Argentina, she is scheduled to perform in Santiago, Chile; Lima, Peru; and Asuncion, Paraguay, before taking her "Born This Way Ball" tour to Africa, Europe and North America.

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EU drug regulator OKs Novartis' meningitis B shot

LONDON (AP) — Europe's top drug regulator has recommended approval for the first vaccine against meningitis B, made by Novartis AG.

There are five types of bacterial meningitis. While vaccines exist to protect against the other four, none has previously been licensed for type B meningitis. In Europe, type B is the most common, causing 3,000 to 5,000 cases every year.

Meningitis mainly affects infants and children. It kills about 8 percent of patients and leaves others with lifelong consequences such as brain damage.

In a statement on Friday, Andrin Oswald of Novartis said he is "proud of the major advance" the company has made in developing its vaccine Bexsero. It is aimed at children over two months of age, and Novartis is hoping countries will include the shot among the routine ones for childhood diseases such as measles.

Novartis said the immunization has had side effects such as fever and redness at the injection site.

Recommendations from the European Medicines Agency are usually adopted by the European Commission. Novartis also is seeking to test the vaccine in the U.S.

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Israel bombards Gaza Strip, shoots down rocket

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel bombarded the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip with about 300 airstrikes Saturday and shot down a Palestinian rocket fired at Tel Aviv, the military said, widening a blistering assault to include the Hamas prime minister's headquarters, a police compound and a vast network of smuggling tunnels.

The intensified airstrikes came as Egyptian-led attempts to broker a cease-fire and end Israel's four-day-old Gaza offensive gained momentum. The leaders of Hamas and two key allies, Qatar and Turkey, were in Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials, and the Arab League was holding an emergency meeting.

The White House said President Barack Obama was also in touch with the Egyptian and Turkish leaders. The U.S. has solidly backed Israel so far.

Speaking on Air Force One, deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said that the White House believes Israel "has the right to defend itself" against attack and that the Israelis will make their own decisions about their "military tactics and operations."

The Israeli attacks, which Gaza officials say left 12 dead, came as Palestinian militants fired more than 100 rockets toward Israel, including two aimed at the commercial and cultural center of Tel Aviv. Rocket attacks on Tel Aviv and Jerusalem this week mark the first time Gaza militants have managed to fire rockets toward the cities, raising the stakes in the confrontation.

The widened scope of targets brings the scale of fighting closer to that of the war the two groups waged four years ago. Hamas was badly bruised during that conflict, but has since restocked its arsenal with more and better weapons, and has been under pressure from smaller, more militant groups to prove its commitment to fighting Israel.

In a psychological boost for the Israelis, a sophisticated Israeli rocket-defense system known as "Iron Dome" knocked down one of the rockets headed toward Tel Aviv, eliciting cheers from relieved residents huddled in fear after air raid sirens sounded in the city.

Associated Press video showed a plume of smoke rising from a rocket-defense battery deployed near the city, followed by a burst of light overhead. The smoke trailed the intercepting missile.

Police said a second rocket also targeted Tel Aviv. It was not clear where it landed or whether it was shot down. No injuries were reported. It was the third straight day the city was targeted.

Israel says the Iron Dome system has shot down some 250 incoming rockets, most of them in southern Israel near Gaza.

Saturday's interception was the first time Iron Dome has been deployed in Tel Aviv. The battery was a new upgraded version that was only activated on Saturday, two months ahead of schedule, officials said.

Israel opened the offensive on Wednesday with a surprising airstrike that killed Hamas' military chief, then attacked dozens of rocket launchers and storage sites. It says the offensive is meant to halt months of rocket fire on southern Israel.

While Israel claims to be inflicting heavy damage on Gaza's Hamas rulers, it has failed to slow the rocket fire. In all, 42 Palestinians, including 13 civilians, have been killed, while three Israeli civilians have died.

Maj. Gen. Tal Russo, Israel's southern commander, said Saturday that Hamas had suffered a tough blow.

"Most of their capabilities have been destroyed," he told reporters. Asked whether Israel is ready to send ground troops into Gaza, he said: "Absolutely."

Israel has authorized the call-up of as many as 75,000 reservists ahead of a possible ground operation. Dozens of armored vehicles have massed along the border with Gaza in recent days.

Israeli officials say they have not yet decided whether to send in ground troops, a decision that would almost certainly lead to heavy casualties on both sides.

In Saturday's fighting, Israeli aircraft pounded militants' weapons storage facilities and underground rocket launching sites, and went after rocket squads more aggressively.

Militants, undaunted, have unleashed some 500 rockets against the Jewish state.

Hamas claims that Israeli intelligence is based on a network of collaborators in Gaza. Officials said two Palestinians have been executed by Hamas' military wing for allegedly providing Israel with sensitive information. One man was shot twice in the head. Another body was tossed into a garbage bin with a gunshot wound to the head.

The violence has threatened the Mideast with a new war. At the same time, revolts against entrenched regional regimes have opened up new possibilities for Hamas. Islamists across the Mideast have been strengthened, bringing newfound recognition to Hamas, which had previously been shunned by the international community because of its refusal to recognize Israel and renounce violence.

A high-level Tunisian delegation, led by Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem, drove that point home with a visit to Gaza on Saturday. The foreign minister's first stop was the still-smoldering ruins of the three-story office building of Gaza's prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas.

"Israel has to understand that there is an international law and it has to respect the international law to stop the aggression against the Palestinian people," Abdessalem told the AP during a tour of Gaza's main hospital. He said his country was doing whatever it can to promote a cease-fire, but did not elaborate.

It was the first official Tunisian visit since Hamas's violent 2007 takeover of the territory. The West Bank is governed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Egypt's prime minister visited Gaza on Friday and a Moroccan delegation was due on Sunday, following a landmark visit by Qatar's leader last month.

Israel had been incrementally expanding its operation beyond military targets but before dawn on Saturday it ramped that up dramatically, hitting Hamas symbols of power.

Israeli defense officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential decisions, said military chief Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz personally ordered the scope of the airstrikes to be increased.

Haniyeh's three-story office building was flattened by an airstrike that blew out windows in neighboring homes. He was not inside the building at the time.

Another airstrike brought down the three-story home of a Hamas commander in the Jebaliya refugee camp near Gaza City, critically wounding him and injuring other residents of the building, medics said.

Missiles smashed into two small security facilities and the massive Hamas police headquarters in Gaza City, setting off a huge blaze that engulfed nearby houses and civilian cars parked outside, the Interior Ministry reported. No one was inside the buildings.

The Interior Ministry said a government compound was also hit while devout Muslims streamed to the area for early morning prayers, although no casualties were reported.

Air attacks knocked out five electricity transformers, cutting off power to more than 400,000 people in southern Gaza, according to the Gaza electricity distribution company. People switched on backup generators for limited electrical supplies.

In southern Gaza, aircraft went after underground tunnels militants use to smuggle in weapons and other contraband from Egypt, residents reported. A huge explosion in the area sent buildings shuddering in the Egyptian city of El-Arish, 45 kilometers (30 miles) away, an Associated Press correspondent there reported.

The Israeli military said more than 950 targets have been struck since the operation began.

On Saturday, more than 120 rockets slammed into Israel, causing damage to houses. About 10 Israelis were injured lightly, among dozens of others wounded since the start of the operation.

Despite the violence, Egyptian-led diplomacy was underway to bring an end to the fighting.

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi was meeting the leaders of Turkey and Qatar Saturday as well as Hamas leader Khaled Meshal to discuss details of a proposed cease-fire.

The Arab League also met Saturday to consider sending its chief Nabil Elaraby and a team of foreign ministers to Gaza in the coming two days to assess the situation and respond to humanitarian needs there, according to a draft memorandum obtained by the AP.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters Saturday that during discussions with Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin late Friday, he suggested that Turkey, Egypt, the United States and Russia help broker a simultaneous cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.

"It would be good if we could work on it rapidly to solve the matter within 24 hours, because the death toll is mounting," he said.

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Goldenberg reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Karin Laub in Gaza City, Matthew Daly in Washington and Aya Batrawy in Cairo contributed reporting.

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Pakistan releases son of Afghan militant leader

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — The son of a legendary Afghan mujahedeen leader was among a group of Taliban prisoners released by Pakistan to help jumpstart peace negotiations with the militant group, the man's cousin and a family friend said Friday.

The decision to release the prisoners is seen as a signal to neighboring Afghanistan that Pakistan might be willing to take concrete steps to revive efforts to lure the group to the negotiating table.

Pakistan released Anwarul Haq Mujahid on Thursday, and he joined his family in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, said the cousin and family friend, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Mujahid is the son of the late Maulvi Mohammad Yunus Khalis who fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Khalis, who was once invited to the White House by former President Ronald Regan, died in 2006.

Afghan officials said Thursday that Pakistan freed eight Taliban prisoners and agreed to release many more. Mujahid was not among the eight listed by the Afghan officials, which means at least nine prisoners have been freed.

The most prominent prisoner freed was former Justice Minister Nooruddin Turabi who served when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan.

The U.S. and its allies fighting in Afghanistan are pushing to strike a peace deal with the Taliban so they can withdraw most of their troops by the end of 2014. The prisoner release could help, but considerable obstacles remain. It is unclear whether the Taliban even intend to take part in the process, rather than just wait until foreign forces withdraw.

Pakistan is seen as key to the peace process. Islamabad has ties to the Taliban that date back to the 1990s, and many of the group's leaders are believed to be based on Pakistani territory, having fled there following the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

Also Friday, a Pakistani lawyer accused the military of sending thugs to beat him up after he challenged the army chief in court.

Inam Ur Raheem, a retired military lawyer, said three vehicles surrounded his taxi Wednesday night in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. Several unidentified men jumped out and attacked him with sticks, leaving him with cuts and bruises. He claimed they said they were there to teach him a lesson.

The attack came a day after Raheem filed a petition in the Islamabad High Court challenging the validity of a three-year extension given to army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani in 2010.

The army denied any role in the attack Friday, calling Raheem's allegations baseless.

The New York Times first reported the attack Thursday.

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Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed contributed to this report from Islamabad.

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Judge grants Miley Cyrus civil restraining order

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge has granted Miley Cyrus a three-year civil restraining order against a man convicted of trespassing at her home in Los Angeles.

The stay-away order was granted Friday against Jason Luis Rivera by Superior Court Judge William D. Stewart.

The 40-year-old Rivera was convicted in October of trespassing at the singer's home and sentenced to 18 months in jail.

He is scheduled to be released in May. Authorities said at the time of Rivera's arrest in September that he was carrying scissors and ran into the wall of Cyrus' home as if trying to break in.

Rivera did not respond to Cyrus' petition.

The 20-year-old former star of "Hannah Montana" did not attend the hearing. Her attorney Bryan Sullivan declined comment.

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Blast rocks Gulf oil rig, two missing


Ships and helicopters are searching for two oil rig workers who disappeared when an explosion rocked a gulf oil rig off the coast of Louisiana and set it on fire, Coast Guard officials said.



Eleven other crew members were flown to hospitals, and four of them are listed in critical condition. No one has been confirmed dead.



Earlier reports by the Coast Guard that as many as 15 people were unaccounted for were resolved as the workers were located.



Among the injured were four who were airlifted for medical treatment to the West Jefferson Medical Center, where they are in critical condition after suffering serious burns. All four are intubated and will be evacuated to Baton Rouge Burn Center when they are stabilized, according to West Jefferson spokesman Taslin Alfonzo.



Three helicopters and two rescue boats are scouring the water looking for the missing crew members, according to Ed Cubanski, chief of the U.S. Coast Guard response.



The Coast Guard said that a Black Elk Energy Co. oil and natural gas platform caught fire after workers using a torch cut a line that had 28 gallons of oil in it, causing an explosion.



Black Elk's CEO, John Hoffman, said that the wrong tool was used in cutting the line. Contract workers should have used a saw instead of a torch, which caught vapors and caused the blast. The workers were employees of Grand Isle Shipyard, not Black Elk, he said. All of the individuals were men.



The rig was offline for maintenance and was scheduled to go back online for production later this month.



There were 22 people on board at the time of the explosion, according to the Coast Guard.



An oil sheen a half mile long and 200 yards wide has spread over the water surrounding the platform, which sits in 56 feet of water. The platform was shut down for the work at the time of the accident, Cubanski said.



The platform was located about 20 nautical miles southeast of Grand Isle, La., when the explosion happened, Vega said.



The explosion and fire comes the day after BP agreed to a $4 billion settlement for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion in the gulf, triggering the worst offshore oil spill in the country's history.


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Afghan officials: Pakistan frees Taliban detainees

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Pakistan has freed eight Taliban prisoners and has agreed to release many more to help kick start a peace process that could lead to a political resolution of the 11-year-old Afghan war, Afghan officials said Thursday.

The decision to release the prisoners, including the former justice minister from when the repressive Taliban ruled Afghanistan, is seen as a signal that neighboring Pakistan might be willing to take concrete steps to revive efforts to lure the group to the negotiating table.

The three Afghan officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they are not yet authorized to discuss the results of the sensitive meetings in Islamabad, are familiar with the four-day trip that the Afghan government's peace council made there this week.

The U.S. and its allies fighting in Afghanistan are pushing to strike a peace deal with the Taliban so they can withdraw most of their troops by the end of 2014. But considerable obstacles remain, and it is unclear whether the Taliban even intend to take part in the process, rather than just wait until foreign forces withdraw.

Pakistan is seen as key to the peace process. Islamabad has ties to the Taliban that date back to the 1990s, and many of the group's leaders are believed to be based on Pakistani territory, having fled there following the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

The officials said the first group of prisoners was released on Wednesday as a goodwill gesture, and that Pakistani officials had agreed to free anywhere from 15 to 32 more prisoners in the future to help build traction for formal talks with the Taliban.

Two of the officials said former Taliban Justice Minister Nooruddin Turabi was among those released on Wednesday. Turabi, a native of Kandahar who is in his late 40s or early 50s, is missing an eye and has only one leg. He is believed to have played a role in the destruction of two, 1,500-year-old sandstone Buddha statues that once towered some 180 feet high in central Afghanistan. The Taliban, who considered them symbols of paganism, destroyed them in 2001.

A joint statement issued by Pakistan and Afghanistan on Wednesday said "a number of Taliban detainees are being released" to support the peace process at the request of the Afghan government. It also called on the Taliban and other armed opposition groups to participate in peace talks and sever links with al-Qaida. Neither the Pakistani nor Afghan governments have officially confirmed the identities of the prisoners released.

However, one of the officials familiar with the peace process gave The Associated Press a list of the Taliban prisoners — some identified by only one name — that Pakistan agreed to release. The eight prisoners on the list were:

—Turabi.

—Jahangirwal, who was a special assistant for the Taliban's top leader, Mullah Omar.

—Qutub, a Taliban leader.

—Abdul Salaam, the Taliban's former governor of Baghlan province.

—Maulvi Matiullah, who was director of the customs house in Kabul under the Taliban regime;

—Mahamad, the Taliban's former governor of Kunduz province.

—Sayed Saduddin Agha, a former Taliban commander.

—Allah Dad, the Taliban's former deputy minister of communication.

The eight are among 40 Taliban prisoners that the Afghan government has asked Pakistan to release.

Also on the list of 40 is the Taliban's former deputy leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who was captured in Pakistan in 2010.

Baradar is seen by some as crucial to the peace process. Baradar was reportedly conducting talks with the Afghan government that were kept secret from the Pakistanis, and his arrest in the sprawling southern port city of Karachi reportedly angered Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Pakistan helped the Taliban seize control of Afghanistan in the 1990s — providing funding, weapons and intelligence — and the Afghan government and the U.S. have accused Islamabad of continuing to support the group. Pakistan has denied the allegations, but many analysts believe the country continues to see the militant group as an important ally in Afghanistan to counter archenemy India.

However, Pakistan is also worried about instability in Afghanistan following the planned withdrawal of foreign forces. If civil war breaks out again as it did in the 1990s, hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees could stream across the border into Pakistan. Violence could also give greater cover to Pakistani militants who are at war with Islamabad.

These concerns have made a peace deal more urgent in the minds of Pakistanis.

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Associated Press writers Kathy Gannon in Islamabad, Pakistan, and Deb Riechmann in Kabul contributed to this report.

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DA: Heroin charge dropped vs. Bon Jovi's daughter

CLINTON, N.Y. (AP) — Drug charges against Jon Bon Jovi's 19-year-old daughter have been dropped, a central New York prosecutor said Thursday.

Stephanie Bongiovi was found unresponsive by medics after she apparently overdosed on heroin in a Hamilton College dorm early Wednesday. Town of Kirkland police charged Bongiovi, of Red Bank, N.J., and fellow student Ian Grant, also of Red Bank, with possession of a small amount of heroin and marijuana.

Oneida County District Attorney Scott McNamara said he was dismissing the charges against both students. Under state law, someone having a drug overdose or seeking help for an overdose victim can't be prosecuted for having a small amount of heroin or any amount of marijuana.

The so-called Good Samaritan 911 law signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in July 2011 was designed to reduce overdose deaths by encouraging people to call 911 without fear of being arrested for drug possession. Similar laws have been passed in several other states.

Bon Jovi, 50, is scheduled to perform at a concert to benefit Hamilton's scholarships and arts programs in Times Square on Dec. 5. He has not commented on his daughter's overdose.

He has four children, Stephanie and three sons.

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Diabetes rates rocket in Oklahoma, South

NEW YORK (AP) — The nation's diabetes problem is getting worse, and the biggest jump over 15 years was in Oklahoma, according to a new federal report issued Thursday.

The diabetes rate in Oklahoma more than tripled, and Kentucky, Georgia and Alabama also saw dramatic increases since 1995, the study showed.

The South's growing weight problem is the main explanation, said Linda Geiss, lead author of the report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study.

"The rise in diabetes has really gone hand in hand with the rise in obesity," she said.

Bolstering the numbers is the fact that more people with diabetes are living longer because better treatments are available.

The disease exploded in the United States in the last 50 years, with the vast majority from obesity-related Type 2 diabetes. In 1958, fewer than 1 in 100 Americans had been diagnosed with diabetes. In 2010, it was about 1 in 14.

Most of the increase has happened since 1990.

Diabetes is a disease in which the body has trouble processing sugar; it's the nation's seventh leading cause of death. Complications include poor circulation, heart and kidney problems and nerve damage.

The new study is the CDC's first in more than a decade to look at how the nationwide boom has played out in different states.

It's based on telephone surveys of at least 1,000 adults in each state in 1995 and 2010. Participants were asked if a doctor had ever told them they have diabetes.

Not surprisingly, Mississippi — the state with the largest proportion of residents who are obese — has the highest diabetes rate. Nearly 12 percent of Mississippians say they have diabetes, compared to the national average of 7 percent.

But the most dramatic increases in diabetes occurred largely elsewhere in the South and in the Southwest, where rates tripled or more than doubled. Oklahoma's rate rose to about 10 percent, Kentucky went to more than 9 percent, Georgia to 10 percent and Alabama surpassed 11 percent.

An official with Oklahoma State Department of Health said the solution is healthier eating, more exercise and no smoking.

"And that's it in a nutshell," said Rita Reeves, diabetes prevention coordinator.

Several Northern states saw rates more than double, too, including Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Maine.

The study was published in CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

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Associated Press writer Ken Miller in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.

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Online:

CDC report: http://tinyurl.com/cdcdiabetesreport

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BP employees charged with manslaughter

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Two men who worked for BP during the 2010 Gulf oil spill disaster have been charged with manslaughter and a third with lying to federal investigators, according to indictments made public Thursday, hours after BP announced it was paying $4.5 billion in a settlement with the U.S. government over the disaster.

A federal indictment unsealed in New Orleans claims BP well site leaders Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine acted negligently in their supervision of key safety tests performed on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig before the explosion killed 11 workers in April 2010. The indictment says Kaluza and Vidrine failed to phone engineers onshore to alert them of problems in the drilling operation.

Another indictment charges David Rainey, who was BP's vice president of exploration for the Gulf of Mexico, on charges of obstruction of Congress and false statements. The indictment claims the former executive lied to federal investigators when they asked him how he calculated a flow rate estimate for BP's blown-out well in the days after the April 2010 disaster.

Before Thursday, the only person charged in the disaster was a former BP engineer who was arrested in April on obstruction of justice charges. He was accused of deleting text messages about the company's response to the spill.

Earlier in the day, BP PLC said it would plead guilty to criminal charges related to the deaths of 11 workers and lying to Congress.

The day of reckoning comes more than two years after the nation's worst offshore oil spill. The figure includes nearly $1.3 billion in criminal fines — the biggest criminal penalty in U.S. history — along with payments to certain government entities.

"We believe this resolution is in the best interest of BP and its shareholders," said Carl-Henric Svanberg, BP chairman. "It removes two significant legal risks and allows us to vigorously defend the company against the remaining civil claims."

The settlement, which is subject to approval by a federal judge, includes payments of nearly $2.4 billion to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, $350 million to the National Academy of Sciences and about $500 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC accused BP of misleading investors by lowballing the amount of crude spewing from the ruptured well.

London-based BP said in a statement that the settlement would not cover any civil penalties the U.S. government might seek under the Clean Water Act and other laws. Nor does it cover billions of dollars in claims brought by states, businesses and individuals, including fishermen, restaurants and property owners.

A federal judge in New Orleans is weighing a separate, proposed $7.8 billion settlement between BP and more than 100,000 businesses and individuals who say they were harmed by the spill.

BP will plead guilty to 11 felony counts of misconduct or neglect of a ship's officers, one felony count of obstruction of Congress and one misdemeanor count each under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Clean Water Act. The workers' deaths were prosecuted under a provision of the Seaman's Manslaughter Act. The obstruction charge is for lying to Congress about how much oil was spilling.

The penalty will be paid over five years. BP made a profit of $5.5 billion in the most recent quarter. The largest previous corporate criminal penalty assessed by the U.S. Justice Department was a $1.2 billion fine imposed on drug maker Pfizer in 2009.

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Report: Sri Lankan war was grave failure for UN

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A United Nations report released Wednesday said inadequate efforts by the world body to protect civilians during the bloody final months of Sri Lanka's civil war marked a "grave failure" that led to suffering for hundreds of thousands of people.

The report was unusually scathing for an official U.N. critique.

The report accused U.N. staff in Colombo of not perceiving that preventing civilian deaths was their responsibility and accused their bosses at U.N. headquarters of not telling them otherwise. A separate U.N. report released last year said up to 40,000 ethnic minority Tamil civilians may have been killed in the war's final months.

"This report is a benchmark moment for the U.N. in the same way that Rwanda was," said Gordon Weiss, a former U.N. spokesman in Sri Lanka.

The report accused U.N. officials and member states of being reluctant to interfere and leaving the conflict in a "vacuum of inaction."

"The report concludes that the United Nations system failed to meet its responsibilities — highlighting, in particular, the roles played by the Secretariat, the agencies and programs of the U.N. Country Team and the members of the Security Council and Human Rights Council," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement.

The report was compiled by a committee headed by former U.N. official Charles Petrie. It investigated U.N. actions as the quarter-century war between the government, dominated by the ethnic Sinhalese majority, and minority Tamil rebels ended in 2009 in a wave of violence.

The BBC first reported on a draft of the report Tuesday.

The draft, obtained by The Associated Press shortly before the final report was released, began with an "executive summary" that detailed the U.N. failure on the ground, saying that the political conditions after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the U.S. made countries less likely to stop a government fighting against a group — the Tamil Tiger rebels — that many had branded a terrorist organization.

The executive summary was deleted from the official published version issued on Wednesday.

The draft report painted a picture of a U.N. operation reluctant to criticize the government or accuse it of killing civilians with artillery bombardments, out of concern the government would respond by limiting U.N. humanitarian access — even through U.N. aid workers were barred from the northern war zone in late 2008.

Top U.N. officials in the country repeatedly worked to soften statements to remove casualty figures and accusations of possible war crimes against the government, the official report said. When death tolls its staff was compiling were released, top officials dismissed them as unverified despite the rigorous methodology being used, the report said.

When U.N. satellite images confirmed heavy artillery shelling in the war zone and showed far more civilians there than the government claimed, the top U.N. official in Sri Lanka downplayed the evidence in a letter to the government, the final version of the report said. At the same time, member states did not hold a single formal meeting on the conflict in its final months in the Security Council, Human Rights Council or the General Assembly.

"The UN set itself up for failure, in Sri Lanka," the draft report said, in another quote deleted from the final, official report.

The report also accused the government of working to intimidate U.N. staff, of withholding visas of those critical of the government and of planting false allegations against them in the media.

The U.N. representative for Human Rights Watch, Philippe Bolopion, said "The U.N.'s dereliction of duty in Sri Lanka is a stark reminder of what happens when human rights concerns are marginalized or labeled as too political."

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Nessman reported from New Delhi.

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NASCAR’s Keselowski can’t tweet in car anymore
















CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Brad Keselowski became a social media darling after hopping on Twitter during a lengthy delay in the Daytona 500.


Keselowski was the center of attention, and NASCAR seemed trendy and hip — a description its executives surely adored.













Turns out, tweeting from the car isn’t cool with NASCAR.


Keselowski was fined $ 25,000 on Monday for tweeting during the red flag at Phoenix International Raceway. The punishment was confusing to fans who vented on Twitter, of course, wondering why Keselowski was punished for Sunday’s tweets when he was celebrated by NASCAR for doing the exact same thing in February’s season-opening race.


Some alleged the Sprint Cup Series points leader was actually being disciplined for his profanity-laced outburst after Sunday’s crash- and fight-marred race.


NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp on Tuesday dismissed the conspiracy theories, and said drivers had been told after the Daytona 500 that electronic devices — including cellphones — could not be carried inside the race cars going forward.


“Brad’s tweeting at the Daytona 500 was really our first introduction to the magnitude of the social media phenomenon at the race track, especially how we saw it unfold that evening,” Tharp said. “We encourage our drivers to participate in social media. We feel we have the most liberal social media policy in all of sports, and the access we provide is the best in all of sports.


“But we also have rules that pertain to competition that need to be enforced and abided by. Once the 500 took place, and in the days and weeks following the 500, NASCAR communicated to the drivers and teams that while social media was encouraged and we promoted it, the language in the rule book was clear and that drivers couldn’t carry onboard their cars electronic devices, like a phone.”


Keselowski, who takes a 20-point lead over Jimmie Johnson into Sunday’s season finale in his quest to win his first Sprint Cup Series title, has not commented on his penalty.


But with the championship on the line, his crew chief indicated Tuesday he’ll be doing his best to keep the phone out of the No. 2 Dodge this weekend.


“Never even crossed my mind, to be honest with you,” Paul Wolfe said. “We get so involved in worrying about how to make the race car go around the track that, obviously, Brad’s cellphone is not on my mind a whole lot. I’ll definitely remind him this weekend.”


The Daytona 500 was stopped for nearly two hours when Juan Pablo Montoya crashed into a jet dryer that was cleaning the track during a caution period. The crash caused a fuel explosion, and Keselowski used his phone to tweet pictures, answer questions and give updates on the cleanup during the delay.


The race, which had been rained out for the first time in 54 runnings, was being aired on Monday night in prime time for the first time in history and Keselowski’s tweeting drew worldwide headlines.


Afterward, NASCAR specifically said Keselowski did not violate a rule barring onboard electronic devices and would not be penalized.


“Nothing we’ve seen from Brad violates any current rules pertaining to the use of social media during races,” NASCAR said the day after the race. “We encourage our drivers to use social media to express themselves as long as they do so without risking their safety or that of others.”


NASCAR did not issue a technical bulletin to clarify phones could no longer be inside cars, and the clarification to drivers was apparently done quietly. In fact, Keselowski tweeted from Victory Lane at Bristol in March, and from inside his car parked on pit road during a rain delay at Richmond in September. It’s possible someone could have handed him his phone both times.


A year ago, the outspoken Penske Racing driver was fined $ 25,000 headed into the finale for criticizing electronic fuel injection. At the time, NASCAR had been privately punishing drivers for making disparaging remarks about the series, but word of Keselowski’s fine leaked and forced NASCAR to change its policy during the offseason.


Still, many fans were convinced this week’s fine against Keselowski was actually for his post-race comments about the aggressive racing at Phoenix.


He’d been criticized by several drivers for racing Johnson hard over a pair of late restarts at Texas a week earlier, and felt his aggressive driving paled in comparison to Jeff Gordon intentionally wrecking Clint Bowyer with two laps to go on Sunday. Gordon’s retaliation also collected Joey Logano and Aric Almirola, and forced Keselowski to weave his way around the accident.


“It just drives me absolutely crazy that I get lambasted for racing somebody hard without there even being a wreck and then you see stuff like this … from the same people that criticized me,” he said. “It’s OK to just take somebody out. But you race somebody hard, put a fender on somebody and try to go for the win, and you’re an absolute villain. We can just go out and retaliate against each other and come back in and smile about it, and it’s fine. That’s not what this sport needs. It needs hard racing, it needs people that go for broke, try to win races and put it all out there on the line. Not a bunch of people that have anger issues.”


Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News



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Judge tosses anti-paparazzi counts in Bieber case

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A law aimed at combating reckless driving by paparazzi is overly broad and should not be used against the first photographer charged under its provisions, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Superior Court Judge Thomas Rubinson dismissed counts filed under the law against Paul Raef, who was charged in July with being involved in a high-speed pursuit of Justin Bieber.

The judge cited numerous problems with the 2010 law, saying it was aimed at First Amendment newsgathering activities, and lawmakers should have simply increased the penalties for reckless driving rather than targeting celebrity photographers.

Attorneys for Raef argued the law was unconstitutional and was meant merely to protect celebrities while punishing people who gather news.

"This discrimination sets a dangerous precedent," attorney Brad Kaiserman said.

Prosecutors argued that the law, which seeks to punish those who drive dangerously in pursuit of photos for commercial gain, didn't merely apply to the media but could apply to people in other professions.

Rubinson cited hypothetical examples in which wedding photographers or even photographers rushing to a portrait shoot with a celebrity could face additional penalties if charged under the new statute.

Raef still faces traditional reckless driving counts.

Prosecutors allege he chased Bieber at more than 80 mph and forced other motorists to avoid collisions while Raef tried to get shots of the teen heartthrob on a Los Angeles freeway in July.

Raef has not yet entered a plea in the case.

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Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP

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Ireland probes death of ill abortion-seeker

DUBLIN (AP) — The debate over legalizing abortion in Ireland flared Wednesday after the government confirmed that a woman in the midst of a miscarriage was refused an abortion and died in an Irish hospital after suffering from blood poisoning.

Prime Minister Enda Kenny said he was awaiting findings from three investigations into the death of Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year-old Indian woman who was 17 weeks pregnant. Her case highlighted the legal limbo in which pregnant women facing severe health problems can find themselves in predominantly Catholic Ireland.

Ireland's constitution officially bans abortion, but a 1992 Supreme Court ruling found the procedure should be legalized for situations when the woman's life is at risk from continuing the pregnancy. Five governments since have refused to pass a law resolving the confusion, leaving Irish hospitals reluctant to terminate pregnancies except in the most obviously life-threatening circumstances.

The vast bulk of Irish women wanting abortions, an estimated 4,000 per year, simply travel next door to England, where abortion has been legal on demand since 1967. But that option is difficult, if not impossible, for women in failing health.

Halappanavar's husband, Praveen, said doctors at University Hospital Galway in western Ireland determined she was miscarrying within hours of her hospitalization for severe pain on Sunday, Oct. 21. He said over the next three days, doctors refused their requests for an abortion to combat her surging pain and fading health.

The hospital declined to say whether doctors believed Halappanavar's blood poisoning could have been reversed had she received an abortion rather than waiting for the fetus to die on its own. In a statement, it described its own investigation into the death, and a parallel probe by the government's Health Service Executive, as "standard practice" whenever a pregnant woman dies in a hospital. The Galway coroner also planned a public inquest.

"Savita was really in agony. She was very upset, but she accepted she was losing the baby," he told The Irish Times in a telephone interview from Belgaum, southwest India. "When the consultant came on the ward rounds on Monday morning, Savita asked if they could not save the baby, could they induce to end the pregnancy? The consultant said: 'As long as there is a fetal heartbeat, we can't do anything.'

"Again on Tuesday morning ... the consultant said it was the law, that this is a Catholic country. Savita said: 'I am neither Irish nor Catholic' but they said there was nothing they could do," Praveen Halappanavar said.

He said his wife vomited repeatedly and collapsed in a restroom that night, but doctors wouldn't terminate the fetus because its heart was still beating.

The fetus died the following day and its remains were surgically removed. Within hours, Savita was placed under sedation in intensive care with blood poisoning and he was never able to speak with her again, her husband said. By Saturday, her heart, kidneys and liver had stopped working. She was pronounced dead early Sunday, Oct. 28.

The couple had settled in 2008 in Galway, where Praveen Halappanavar works as an engineer at the medical devices manufacturer Boston Scientific. His wife was qualified as a dentist but had taken time off for her pregnancy. Her parents in India had just visited them in Galway and left the day before her hospitalization.

Praveen Halappanavar said he took his wife's remains back to India for a Hindu funeral and cremation Nov. 3. News of the circumstances that led to her death emerged Tuesday in Galway after the Indian community canceled the city's annual Diwali festival. Savita Halappanavar had been one of the festival's main organizers.

Opposition politicians appealed Wednesday for Kenny's government to introduce legislation immediately to make the 1992 Supreme Court judgment part of statutory law. Barring any such bill, the only legislation defining the illegality of abortion in Ireland dates to 1861, when the entire island was part of the United Kingdom. That British law, still valid here due to Irish inaction on the matter, states it is a crime punishable by life imprisonment to "procure a miscarriage."

In the 1992 case, a 14-year-old girl identified in court only as "X'' successfully sued the government for the right to have an abortion in England. She had been raped by a neighbor. When her parents reported the crime to police, the attorney general ordered her not to travel abroad for an abortion, arguing this would violate Ireland's constitution.

The Supreme Court ruled she should be permitted an abortion in Ireland, never mind England, because she was making credible threats to commit suicide if refused one. During the case, the girl reportedly suffered a miscarriage.

Since then, Irish governments twice have sought public approval to legalize abortion in life-threatening circumstances — but excluding a suicide threat as acceptable grounds. Both times voters rejected the proposed amendments.

Legal and political analysts broadly agree that no Irish government since 1992 has needed public approval to pass a law that backs the Supreme Court ruling. They say governments have been reluctant to be seen legalizing even limited access to abortion in a country that is more than 80 percent Catholic.

An abortions right group, Choice Ireland, said Halappanavar might not have died had any previous government legislated in line with the X judgment. Earlier this year, the government rejected an opposition bill to do this.

"Today, some 20 years after the X case, we find ourselves asking the same question: If a woman is pregnant, her life in jeopardy, can she even establish whether she has a right to a termination here in Ireland?" said Choice Ireland spokeswoman Stephanie Lord.

Coincidentally, the government said it received a long-awaited expert report Tuesday proposing possible changes to Irish abortion law shortly before news of Savita Halappanavar's death broke. The government commissioned the report two years ago after the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Ireland's inadequate access to abortions for life-threatening pregnancies violated European Union law.

The World Health Organization, meanwhile, identifies Ireland as an unusually safe place to be pregnant. Its most recent report on global maternal death rates found that only three out of every 100,000 women die in childbirth in Ireland, compared with an average of 14 in Europe and North America, 190 in Asia and 590 in Africa.

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Obama warns GOP to lay off Rice attacks

President Barack Obama speaks at his first news conference since his re-election. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)President Barack Obama bluntly told Sen. John McCain and other Republicans to lay off their attacks against U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice over the Benghazi assault, telling lawmakers that if they go after her "then you have a problem with me." And Obama, speaking at his first postelection press conference, vowed that Republican opposition would not dissuade him from nominating Rice to replace departing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.


"I don't think there's any debate in this country that when you have four Americans killed that's a problem," he told reporters in the East Room of the White House. "And we've got to get to the bottom of it, and there needs to be accountability. We've got to bring those who carried it out to justice—they won't get any debate from me on that.


"But when they go after the U.N. ambassador, apparently because they think she's an easy target, then they've got a problem with me," he warned.


McCain, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and other Republicans have signaled they will oppose Rice's confirmation if Obama nominates her. Their numbers thus far seem far short of the 40 needed to block it, and some Republican senators have signaled that she should get a fair hearing.


"Let me say specifically about Susan Rice: She has done exemplary work. She has represented the United States and our interests in the United Nations with skill and professionalism and toughness and grace," Obama said.


"And should I choose, if I think that she would be the best person to serve America in the capacity of the State Department, then I will nominate her," he vowed. "That's not a determination that I've made yet."


Rice and Democratic Sen. John Kerry, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, are seen as the front-runners in the race to succeed Clinton.


Conservatives have assailed Rice, who is close to Obama, ever since she made the rounds of the Sunday morning talk shows and said that American intelligence believed the attack on the American compound in Benghazi, which claimed the lives of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, grew out of demonstrations against an Internet video that ridicules Islam.


"As that unfolded, it seems to have been hijacked, let us say, by some individual clusters of extremists who came with heavier weapons, weapons that, as you know, in the wake of the revolution in Libya are quite common and accessible. And it then evolved from there," she told ABC.


White House aides have said Rice was speaking based on the best available intelligence at the time.


"She made an appearance at the request of the White House in which she gave her best understanding of the intelligence provided to her," Obama said Wednesday. "If Sen. McCain and Sen. Graham want to go after somebody, they should go after me.


"But for them to go after the U.N. ambassador, who had nothing to do with Benghazi and was simply making a presentation based on intelligence that she had received, and to besmirch her reputation is outrageous," he said.


"We're after an election now," he scolded. "I think it is important for us to find out exactly what happened in Benghazi, and I'm happy to cooperate in any ways that Congress wants. We have provided every bit of information that we have and we will continue to provide information, and we've got a full-blown investigation. And all that information will be disgorged to Congress."


McCain and Graham hit back quickly.


"I have always said that the buck stops with the President of the United States," the Arizona senator said in a written statement. McCain accused Obama of "contradictory statements" about the attack, labeling it an "act of terror" the day after it happened and then resisting the use of the word "terrorism" for roughly a week afterward.


"We owe the American people and the families of the murdered Americans a full and complete explanation, which for two months the President has failed to deliver," said McCain, who has called for Congress to create a "select committee" to investigate.


"Mr. President, don't think for one minute I don't hold you ultimately responsible for Benghazi. I think you failed as commander in chief before, during and after the attack," Graham said in a statement released by his office.


"We owe it to the American people and the victims of this attack to have full, fair hearings and accountability be assigned where appropriate. Given what I know now, I have no intention of promoting anyone who is up to their eyeballs in the Benghazi debacle," Graham said.


Obama opened what was his first press conference in months with a vow to work with both parties in Congress to tackle the so-called fiscal cliff and revive the economy. He also said he had "no evidence" that the scandal that led David Petraeus to resign in disgrace from his job as CIA director had led to breaches in classified national security material.


"Right now our economy is still recovering from a very deep and damaging crisis, so our top priority has to be jobs and growth," Obama said in opening remarks in the East Room of the White House.


"Both parties can work together" to address the fiscal challenges "in a balanced and responsible way," he said, before pushing Republicans to sign on to his call for raising taxes on the richest Americans.


Asked whether the scandal that drove Petraeus from office had led to national security breaches, Obama replied: "I have no evidence at this point, from what I've seen, that classified information was disclosed that in any way would have had a negative impact on our national security." And the president praised the retired general, saying, "We are safer because of the work Dave Petraeus has done."


Asked for his appraisal of the FBI's work in bringing to light the marital infidelity that Petraeus cited in his resignation message, and why he and the American public learned of the probe only earlier this month, Obama said, "I am withholding judgment" on that process but expressed "a lot of confidence generally in the FBI."


Turning to his tax battle with Republicans, Obama stuck by his vow to oppose any legislation that extends the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans. The president, asked why he had agreed to extend them in the 2010 lame-duck session of Congress, said that "was a one-time proposition" and that "we cannot afford" to do so again.


Obama said he would be willing to look at raising tax revenue by closing loopholes. But he warned that doing so would probably not outweigh an estimated trillion dollars lost by extending tax cuts on income above $250,000. "The math tends not to work," he said.


"I just want to emphasize: I am open to new ideas," Obama underlined. "If the Republican counterparts or some Democrats have a great idea for us to raise revenue, maintain progressivity, make sure the middle class isn't getting hit, reduces our deficit, encourages growth, I'm not going to just slam the door in their face. I want to hear ideas from everybody."


And he reiterated that he does not want just a stopgap agreement with Congress.


"I want a big deal, I want a comprehensive deal," he said. "Fair-minded people can come to an agreement."


Obama, who won the Latino vote by a lopsided margin, also vowed to pursue comprehensive immigration reform in his second term. He said it should include border enforcement and penalties for companies that knowingly hire undocumented workers, while providing "a pathway for legal status" for those who pay their taxes and learn English. He also said it should lock in his presidential determination that undocumented immigrants brought here as children should not be deported but have a potential path to citizenship.


"We need to seize the moment," he said, predicting that "we will have a bill introduced and we begin the process in Congress very soon after my inauguration."


Obama addressed a handful of other issues.


- On the standoff over Iran's suspect nuclear program:


Obama pledged to "try to make a push in the coming months to see if we can open up a dialogue between Iran and not just us but the international community, to see if we can get this thing resolved. ... I can't promise that Iran will walk through the door that they need to walk through, but that would be very much the preferable option" to military action, he said.


- On the possibility of working with Republican rival Mitt Romney:


Obama said that "we haven't scheduled something yet."


"I think everybody needs to catch their breath," he said. "I'm sure that Gov. Romney is spending some time with his family. And my hope is, before the end of the year, though, that we have a chance to sit down and talk."


- On whether he has a mandate:


"I don't presume that because I won an election, that everybody suddenly agrees with me on ... everything. I'm more than familiar with all the literature about presidential overreach in second terms," Obama said. "We are very cautious about that.


"On the other hand, I didn't get re-elected just to bask in re- election," he went on to say. "I got elected to do work on behalf of American families and small businesses all across the country who are still recovering from a really bad recession but are hopeful about the future. And I am, too."


- On climate change:


Obama said he would embark "over the next several weeks, next several months" in a "wide-ranging discussion" with scientists, engineers, elected officials and others about "short-term" steps to reduce the carbon emissions that are blamed for global warming. But he seemed pessimistic about any broad response.


"I don't know what either Democrats or Republicans are prepared to do," he said. "There's no doubt that for us to take on climate change in a serious way would involve making some tough political choices.


"And you know, understandably, I think the American people right now have been so focused and will continue to be focused on our economy and jobs and growth that, you know, if the message is somehow we're going to ignore jobs and growth simply to address climate change, I don't think anybody's going to go for that. I won't go for that."


- On relations with the news media:


Bloomberg reporter Hans Nichols shouted out a question about taxes after Obama had indicated that he had already taken his final query.


"That was a great question, but it would be a horrible precedent for me to answer your question just because you yelled it out," Obama said. "So thank you very much, guys."


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The curse of commanding the Afghan war

A look at what went wrong for the four U.S. generals who have led U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan since 2008:

Gen. David McKiernan, June 2008 to June 2009

-Defense Secretary Robert Gates asked for McKiernan's resignation a year before his term as commander was set to end. The firing was seen as a rejection by newly elected President Barack Obama of McKiernan's conventional warfare approach in favor of the more targeted "counterinsurgency" strategy of working to undermine insurgents' pull on the population.

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, June 2009 to June 2010

-McChrystal, who had a background in special operations, came in with a mandate to remake the war effort with the help of "surge" troops ordered by Obama. A year into that push, an article in Rolling Stone magazine quoted members of McChrystal's team making disparaging comments about their commander in chief and other senior administration officials. Obama called McChrystal back to Washington to explain and forced him to resign.

Gen. David Petraeus, July 2010 to July 2011

-Petraeus took over the Afghan command to fill the void left by McChrystal's abrupt departure and agreed to serve for one year. He completed that term and then retired from the military to become CIA director in September 2011. Petraeus resigned as CIA director on Nov. 9 after he had an extramarital affair with his biographer. The affair came out as part of an FBI investigation into suspicious emails between the biographer and another woman.

Gen. John Allen, July 2011 to present

-Allen was appointed by Obama to oversee the drawdown of U.S. and international forces ahead of the planned transfer of security responsibility to the Afghan government in 2014. Pentagon officials said early Tuesday that Allen is under investigation for thousands of alleged "inappropriate communications" with the second woman involved in the Petraeus case, a Florida socialite. Allen's nomination to become the next commander of U.S. European Command and the commander of NATO forces in Europe has now been put on hold.

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Man who accused Elmo puppeteer of teen sex recants

NEW YORK (AP) — The man who accused Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash of having sex with him when he was a teen now says it isn't so.

The man is now saying his sexual relationship with Clash was adult and consensual.

In response to the statement Tuesday afternoon, Clash issued a statement of his own, saying he is "relieved that this painful allegation has been put to rest."

The man, who has not identified himself, released his statement through the Harrisburg, Pa., law firm of Andreozzi & Associates.

On Monday, Sesame Workshop said Clash had taken a leave of absence from "Sesame Street" after allegations came to light that he had had a relationship with a 16-year-old. Clash denied the charges from the man, who is now in his early 20s.

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Report: FDA wanted to close Mass pharmacy in 2003

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly a decade ago, federal health inspectors wanted to shut down the pharmacy linked to a recent deadly meningitis outbreak until it cleaned up its operations, according to congressional investigators.

About 440 people have been sickened by contaminated steroid shots distributed by New England Compounding Center, and more than 32 deaths have been reported since the outbreak began in September, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That has put the Framingham, Mass.-based pharmacy at the center of congressional scrutiny and calls for greater regulation of compounding pharmacies, which make individualized medications for patients and have long operated in a legal gray area between state and federal laws.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee released a detailed history of NECC's regulatory troubles on Monday, ahead of a meeting Wednesday meeting to examine how the outbreak could have been prevented. The 25-page report summarizes and quotes from FDA and state inspection memos, though the committee declined to release the original documents.

The report shows that after several problematic incidents, Food and Drug Administration officials in 2003 suggested that the compounding pharmacy be "prohibited from manufacturing" until it improved its operations. But FDA regulators deferred to their counterparts in Massachusetts, who ultimately reached an agreement with the pharmacy to settle concerns about the quality of its prescription injections.

The congressional report also shows that in 2003 the FDA considered the company a pharmacy. That's significant because in recent weeks public health officials have charged that NECC was operating more as a manufacturer than a pharmacy, shipping thousands of doses of drugs to all 50 states instead of small batches of drugs to individual patients. Manufacturers are regulated by the FDA and are subject to stricter quality standards than pharmacies.

The report offers the most detailed account yet of the numerous regulatory complaints against the pharmacy, which nearly date back to its founding in 1998. Less than a year later, the company was cited by the state pharmacy board for providing doctors with blank prescription pads with NECC's information. Such promotional items are illegal in Massachusetts and the pharmacy's owner and director, Barry Cadden, received an informal reprimand, according to documents summarized by the committee.

Cadden was subject to several other complaints involving unprofessional conduct in coming years, but first came to the FDA's attention in 2002. Here are some key events from the report highlighting the company's early troubles with state and federal authorities:

__ In March of 2002 the FDA began investigating reports that five patients had become dizzy and short of breath after receiving NECC's compounded betamethasone repository injection, a steroid used to treat joint pain and arthritis that's different from the one linked to the current meningitis outbreak.

FDA inspectors visited NECC on April 9 and said Cadden was initially cooperative in turning over records about production of the drug. But during a second day of inspections, Cadden told officials "that he was no longer willing to provide us with any additional records," according to an FDA report cited by congressional investigators. The inspectors ultimately issued a report citing NECC for poor sterility and record-keeping practices but said that "this FDA investigation could not proceed to any definitive resolution," because of "problems/barriers that were encountered throughout the inspection."

__ In October of 2002, the FDA received new reports that two patients at a Rochester, N.Y., hospital came down with symptoms of bacterial meningitis after receiving a different NECC injection. The steroid, methylprednisolone acetate, is the same injectable linked to the current outbreak and is typically is used to treat back pain. Both patients were treated with antibiotics and eventually recovered, according to FDA documents cited by the committee.

When officials from the FDA and Massachusetts Board of Pharmacy visited NECC later in the month, Cadden said vials of the steroid returned by the hospital had tested negative for bacterial contamination. But when FDA scientists tested samples of the drug collected in New York they found bacterial contamination in four out of 14 vials sampled. It is not entirely clear whether FDA tested the same lot shipped to the Rochester hospital.

__ At a February 2003 meeting between state and federal officials, FDA staff emphasized "the potential for serious public consequences if NECC's compounding practices, in particular those relating to sterile products, are not improved." The agency issued a list of problems uncovered in its inspection to NECC, including a failure to verify if sterile drugs met safety standards.

But the agency decided to let Massachusetts officials take the lead in regulating the company, since pharmacies are typically regulated at the state level. It was decided that "the state would be in a better position to gain compliance or take regulatory action against NECC as necessary," according to a summary of the meeting quoted by investigators.

The FDA recommended the state subject NECC to a consent agreement, which would require the company to pass certain quality tests to continue operating. But congressional investigators say Massachusetts Board of Pharmacy did not take any action until "well over a year later."

__ In October 2004, the board sent a proposed consent agreement to Cadden, which would have included a formal reprimand and a three-year probationary period for the company's registration. The case ended without disciplinary action in 2006, when NECC agreed to a less severe consent decree with the state.

Massachusetts officials indicated Tuesday they are still investigating why NECC escaped the more severe penalty.

"I will not be satisfied until we know the full story behind this decision," the state's interim health commissioner Lauren Smith said in a transcript of her prepared testimony released a day ahead of delivery. Smith is one of several witnesses scheduled to testify Wednesday, including FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg.

The committee will also hear from the widow of 78-year-old Eddie C. Lovelace, a longtime circuit court judge in southern Kentucky. Autopsy results confirmed Lovelace received fungus-contaminated steroid injections that led to his death Sept. 17.

Joyce Lovelace will urge lawmakers to work together on legislation to stop future outbreaks caused by compounded drugs, according to a draft of her testimony.

"We now know that New England Compounding Pharmacy, Inc. killed Eddie. I have lost my soulmate and life's partner with whom I worked side by side, day after day for more than fifty years," Lovelace states.

Barry Cadden is also scheduled to appear at the hearing, after lawmakers issued a subpoena to compel him to attend.

The NECC has been closed since early last month, and Massachusetts officials have taken steps to permanently revoke its license. The pharmacy has recalled all the products it makes, including 17,700 single-dose vials of a steroid that tested positive for the fungus tied to the outbreak.

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Congress' choice whether Petraeus testifies on Benghazi attack

Holly Petraeus and Gen. David Petraeus walk past a seated Paula Broadwell (rear right) at his confirmation hearing …The White House said Tuesday that it was "up to Congress" whether to call former CIA Director David Petraeus to testify about the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi, Libya.


"Congress [makes] decisions about who is called to testify," press secretary Jay Carney told reporters at his daily briefing.


The Intelligence Committees of the Senate and House of Representatives had been set to hear from Petraeus about the attack on the American compound in separate closed-door hearings on Thursday. But aides to both panels indicated that the retired Army general would be replaced by Mike Morrell, the acting CIA director.


"The president is confident that Acting Director Morrell is fully informed and capable of representing the CIA in a hearing about the incidents in Benghazi," Carney said.


Still, key senators have made it clear that Petraeus, whose shocking resignation came after the public disclosure of an extramarital affair, will ultimately need to be heard. The attack claimed the lives of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.


Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, told MSNBC on Monday that her panel "should go ahead with Mike Morell and the way it is now set up."


"But I also think that the community should know that this is not sufficient," she continued. "And I have no doubt now that we will need to talk with David Petraeus. And we will likely do that in closed session, but it will be done one way or the other."

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Afghan killings case testing military system

JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. (AP) — The U.S. military has been criticized for its spotty record on convicting troops of killing civilians, but a hearing against Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales involving a massacre in Afghanistan has shown that it isn't like most cases.

Government prosecutors have built a strong eyewitness case against the veteran soldier, with troops recounting how they saw Bales return to the base covered in blood. And in unusual testimony in a military court, Afghan civilians questioned via a video link described the horror of seeing 16 people killed, mostly children, in their villages.

Law experts say the case could test whether the military, aided by technology, is able to embark on a new era of accountability.

Bales faces 16 counts of premeditated murder and six counts of attempted murder. The preliminary hearing, which began Nov. 5 and is scheduled to end with closing arguments Tuesday, will determine whether he faces a court-martial. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

The U.S. military system's record has shown it is slow to convict service members of alleged war crimes.

A range of factors make prosecuting troops for civilian deaths in foreign lands difficult, including gathering eyewitness testimony and collecting evidence at a crime scene in the midst of a war.

At Bales' preliminary hearing, the prosecution accommodated the Afghan witnesses, including children, by providing the video link and holding the sessions at night. The military said it intends to fly the witnesses from Afghanistan to Joint Base Lewis-McChord if there is a court martial.

"I think it shows they're going to prosecute this case no matter what it takes," said Greg Rinckey, a former Army prosecutor from 1999-2004 who is now in private practice. "This was an atrocity. This is not the fog of war. It's not like we were calling in artillery and an artillery shell landed in a village."

Prosecutors say Bales, 39, slipped away from remote Camp Belambay to attack two villages early on March 11, killing 16 civilians, including nine children. The slayings drew such angry protests that the U.S. temporarily halted combat operations in Afghanistan, and it was three weeks before American investigators could reach the crime scenes.

Through a video monitor in a military courtroom near Seattle, Bales saw young Afghan girls smile beneath bright head coverings before they described the bloodbath he's accused of committing. He saw boys fidget as they remembered how they hid behind curtains when a gunman killed people in their village and one other.

And he saw dignified, thick-bearded men who spoke of unspeakable carnage — the piled, burned bodies of children and parents alike.

From the other side of that video link, in Afghanistan, one of the men saw something else — signs that justice will be done.

"I saw the person who killed my brother sitting there, head down with guilt," Haji Mullah Baraan said Monday in an interview with The Associated Press. "He didn't look up toward the camera."

Baraan was one of many Afghan witnesses who testified in Bales' case by live video link over the weekend.

"We got great hope from this and we are sure that we will get justice," Baraan said.

Throughout history, troops have been accused of heinous crimes involving civilians in countries where wars are waged. But rarely have villagers who witnessed the horror testified in a U.S. military court — often because of the costs and logistics of bringing them to the United States.

Villagers may be leery to leave their homeland to go to a foreign country and confront members of one of the mightiest militaries in the world. And as foreign nationals, they cannot be subpoenaed.

While there have been cases of troops being sentenced to life in prison for committing atrocities, the vast majority of those convicted for extrajudicial killings have been let off with little to no jail time for crimes that in civilian courts could carry hefty sentences, legal experts say.

Former U.N. Special Rapporteur Philip Alston — who was invited by the United States to examine extrajudicial killings in Iraq and Afghanistan — pointed out the January 2006 sentencing of Chief Warrant Officer Lewis E. Welshofer Jr.

He was given two months confinement to his base, a fine of $6,000, and a letter of reprimand after being found guilty of negligent homicide and negligent dereliction of duty for the death of an Iraqi general who had turned himself in to military authorities.

"Military records released in Freedom of Information Act litigation make clear that the Welshofer sentence is not an anomaly," Alston wrote in a 2010 report.

The military hasn't executed a service member since 1961, when an Army ammunition handler was hanged for raping an 11-year-old girl in Austria.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said the death penalty is possible if Bales is found guilty.

Afghan witnesses recounted the villagers who lived in the attacked compounds and listed the names of those killed. The bodies were buried quickly under Islamic custom, and no forensic evidence was available to prove the number of victims.

The witnesses included Zardana, 8, who sipped from a pink juice box before she testified. She suffered a gunshot wound to the top of her head, but after two months at a military hospital in Afghanistan and three more at a Navy hospital in San Diego, she can walk and talk again.

None of the Afghan witnesses were able to identify Bales as the shooter, but other evidence, including tests of the blood on his clothes, implicated him, according to testimony from a DNA expert.

Several soldiers testified that Bales returned to the base alone just before dawn the morning of the attacks, covered in blood, and that he made incriminating statements such as, "I thought I was doing the right thing."

Prosecutors say he also made a mid-massacre confession, returning to the base to wake another soldier and report his activities before heading out to the other village. The soldier testified that he didn't believe Bales and went back to sleep.

Bales, an Ohio native and father of two from Lake Tapps, Wash., has not entered a plea and was not expected to testify at the preliminary hearing. His attorneys say he has post-traumatic stress disorder and suffered a concussive head injury while serving in Iraq.

___

Watson contributed from San Diego. Associated Press Writer Mirwais Khan in Kandahar also contributed to this report.

___

Johnson can be reached at https://twitter.com/GeneAPseattle

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Windows Server Developers Can Now Use HP Cloud to Build, Deploy and Scale Their Applications
















I am happy to share that HP Cloud Compute now supports Microsoft Windows Server 2008 instances in addition to the variety of Linux distributions that are already available. Windows Server instances can now be launched in our US-West region. Since HP Cloud Compute is in public beta, all customers receive a 50% discount (see pricing below).



It is a priority for us to provide the tools that enable developers to quickly build, test, deploy and scale their applications in the cloud. That is why we created our CLI for Windows so that developers working in a Windows Server environment can quickly launch and manage their instances using the command line.













The three Windows Server images available are the Enterprise Editions of Windows Server 2008 SP2 (32 bit), Windows Server 2008 SP2 (64 bit) and Windows Server 2008 R2 (64 bit).  All Windows Server instances are created with a randomly generated password, which is then encrypted.  You can create and manage your Windows Server instances from our console, UNIX CLI and Windows CLI. For information about how to access your Windows Server instances using Remote Desktop (RDP), please review our documentation here.


The licenses for a Windows Server instance are included in the hourly rate for your instance, so you can spin up a server and get started without needing to worry about any additional licensing concerns.  Please see the table below for details about the hourly fees for both standard HP Cloud Compute Linux Instances and HP Cloud Compute Windows Server Instances.  While HP Cloud Compute continues in public beta, all customers receive a 50% discount off the prices listed below.























HP Cloud Compute Instance Types

Linux


(per hour)


Windows


(per hour)

Extra Small (1GB RAM, 1 core, 30GB disk)
$ 0.04
$ 0.06
Small (2GB RAM, 2 cores, 60GB disk)
$ 0.08 
$ 0.12
Medium (4GB RAM, 2 cores, 120GB disk)
$ 0.16
$ 0.24
Large (8GB RAM, 4 cores, 240GB disk)
$ 0.32
$ 0.48
Extra Large (16GB RAM, 4 cores, 480GB disk)
$ 0.64
$ 0.96
Double Extra Large (32GB RAM, 8 cores, 960GB disk)
$ 1.28
$ 1.92

Our team has been working hard to ensure that we are able to support all of your public cloud needs and appreciate all those that participated in our private and public betas.  We are very excited about the launch of Windows Server instances.  Stay tuned as we plan to launch support for additional versions of Windows Server including Windows Server 2012 in the coming months.  As always, feel free to leave a comment, connect with us on chat or email or find us on twitter (@hpcloud) if you have any questions.


Linux/Open Source News Headlines – Yahoo! News



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