Obama Still an 'Optimist' on Cliff Deal

Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

WASHINGTON D.C. – Ten days remain before the mandatory spending cuts and tax increases known as the “fiscal cliff” take effect, but President Obama said he is still a “hopeless optimist” that a federal budget deal can be reached before the year-end deadline that economists agree might plunge the country back into recession.

“Even though Democrats and Republicans are arguing about whether those rates should go up for the wealthiest individuals, all of us – every single one of us -agrees that tax rates shouldn’t go up for the other 98 percent of Americans, which includes 97 percent of small businesses,” he said.

He added that there was “no reason” not to move forward on that aspect, and that it was “within our capacity” to resolve.

The question of whether to raise taxes on incomes over $250,000 remains at an impasse, but is only one element of nuanced legislative wrangling that has left the parties at odds.

For ABC News’ breakdown of the rhetoric versus the reality, click here.

At the White House news conference this evening, the president confirmed he had spoken today to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, although no details of the conversations were disclosed.

The talks came the same day Speaker Boehner admitted “God only knows” the solution to the gridlock, and a day after mounting pressure from within his own Republican Party forced him to pull his alternative proposal from a prospective House vote. That proposal, ”Plan B,” called for extending current tax rates for Americans making up to $1 million a year, a far wealthier threshold than Democrats have advocated.

Boehner acknowledged that even the conservative-leaning “Plan B” did not have the support necessary to pass in the Republican-dominated House, leaving a resolution to the fiscal cliff in doubt.

“In the next few days, I’ve asked leaders of Congress to work towards a package that prevents a tax hike on middle-class Americans, protects unemployment insurance for 2 million Americans, and lays the groundwork for further work on both growth and deficit reduction,” Obama said. ”That’s an achievable goal.  That can get done in 10 days.”

Complicating matters: The halls of Congress are silent tonight. The House of Representatives began its holiday recess Thursday and Senate followed this evening.

Meanwhile, the president has his own vacation to contend with. Tonight, he was embarking for Hawaii and what is typically several weeks of Christmas vacation.

However, during the press conference the president said he would see his congressional colleagues “next week” to continue negotiations, leaving uncertain how long Obama plans to remain in the Aloha State.

The president said he hoped the time off would give leaders “some perspective.”

“Everybody can cool off; everybody can drink some eggnog, have some Christmas cookies, sing some Christmas carols, enjoy the company of loved ones,” he said. “And then I’d ask every member of Congress, while they’re back home, to think about that.  Think about the obligations we have to the people who sent us here.

“This is not simply a contest between parties in terms of who looks good and who doesn’t,” he added later. “There are real-world consequences to what we do here.”

Obama concluded by reiterating that neither side could walk away with “100 percent” of its demands, and that it negotiations couldn’t remain “a contest between parties in terms of who looks good and who doesn’t.”

Boehner’s office reacted quickly to the remarks, continuing recent Republican statements that presidential leadership was at fault for the ongoing gridlock.

“Though the president has failed to offer any solution that passes the test of balance, we remain hopeful he is finally ready to get serious about averting the fiscal cliff,” Boehner said. “The House has already acted to stop all of the looming tax hikes and replace the automatic defense cuts. It is time for the Democratic-run Senate to act, and that is what the speaker told the president tonight.”

The speaker’s office said Boehner “will return to Washington following the holiday, ready to find a solution that can pass both houses of Congress.”

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Syrian rebels fight for strategic town in Hama province

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Rebels began to push into a strategic town in Syria's central Hama province on Thursday and laid siege to at least one town dominated by President Bashar al-Assad's minority sect, activists said.

The operation risks inflaming already raw sectarian tensions as the 21-month-old revolt against four decades of Assad family rule - during which the president's Alawite sect has dominated leadership of the Sunni Muslim majority - rumbles on.

Opposition sources said rebels had won some territory in the strategic southern town of Morek and were surrounding the Alawite town of al-Tleisia.

They were also planning to take the town of Maan, arguing that the army was present there and in al-Tleisia and was hindering their advance on nearby Morek, a town on the highway that runs from Damascus north to Aleppo, Syria's largest city and another battleground in the conflict.

"The rockets are being fired from there, they are being fired from Maan and al-Tleisia, we have taken two checkpoints in the southern town of Morek. If we want to control it then we need to take Maan," said a rebel captain in Hama rural area, who asked not to be named.

Activists said heavy army shelling had targeted the town of Halfaya, captured by rebels two days earlier. Seven people were killed, 30 were wounded, and dozens of homes were destroyed, said activist Safi al-Hamawi.

Hama is home to dozens of Alawite and Christian villages among Sunni towns, and activists said it may be necessary to lay siege to many minority areas to seize Morek. Rebels want to capture Morek to cut off army supply lines into northern Idlib, a province on the northern border with Turkey where rebels hold swathes of territory.

From an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, Alawites have largely stood behind Assad, many out of fear of revenge attacks. Christians and some other minorities have claimed neutrality, with a few joining the rebels and a more sizeable portion of them supporting the government out of fear of hardline Islamism that has taken root in some rebel groups.

Activists in Hama said rebels were also surrounding the Christian town of al-Suqeilabiya and might enter the city to take out army positions as well as those of "shabbiha" - pro-Assad militias, the bulk of whom are usually Alawite but can also include Christians and even Sunnis.

"We have been in touch with Christian opposition activists in al-Suqeilabiya and we have told them to stay downstairs or on the lowest floor of their building as possible, and not to go outside. The rebels have promised not to hurt anyone who stays at home," said activist Mousab al-Hamdee, speaking by Skype.

He said he was optimistic that potential sectarian tensions with Christians could be resolved but that Sunni-Alawite strife may be harder to suppress.

SECTARIAN FEARS

U.N. human rights investigators said on Thursday that Syria's conflict was becoming more "overtly sectarian", with more civilians seeking to arm themselves and foreign fighters - mostly Sunnis - flocking in from 29 countries.

"They come from all over, Europe and America, and especially the neighboring countries," said Karen Abuzayd, one of the U.N. investigators, told a news conference in Brussels.

Deeper sectarian divisions may diminish prospects for post-conflict reconciliation even if Assad is ousted, and the influx of foreigners raises the risk of fighting spilling into neighboring countries riven by similar communal fault lines.

Some activists privately voiced concerns of sectarian violence, but the rebel commander in Hama said fighters had been told "violations" would not be tolerated and argued that the move to attack the towns was purely strategic.

"If we are fired at from a Sunni village that is loyal to the regime we go in and we liberate it and clean it," he said. "So should we not do the same when it comes to an Alawite village just because there is a fear of an all-out sectarian war? We respond to the source of fire."

President Vladimir Putin of Russia, Assad's main ally and arms supplier, warned that any solution to the conflict must ensure government and rebel forces do not merely swap roles and fight on forever. It appeared to be his first direct comment on the possibility of a post-Assad Syria.

The West and some Arab states accuse Russia of shielding Assad after Moscow blocked three U.N. Security Council resolutions intended to increase pressure on Damascus to end the violence, which has killed more than 40,000 people. Putin said the Syrian people would ultimately decide their own fate.

Assad's forces have been hitting back at rebel advances with heavy shelling, particularly along the eastern ring of suburbs outside Damascus, where rebels are dominant.

A Syrian security source said the army was planning heavy offensives in northern and central Syria to stem rebel advances, but there was no clear sign of such operations yet.

Rebels seized the Palestinian refugee district of Yarmouk earlier this week, which put them within 3 km (2 miles) of downtown Damascus. Heavy shelling and fighting forced thousands of Palestinian and Syrian residents to flee the Yarmouk area.

Rebels said on Thursday they had negotiated to put the camp - actually a densely packed urban district - back into the hands of pro-opposition Palestinian fighters. There are some 500,000 Palestinian refugees and their descendants living in Syria, and they have been divided by the uprising.

Palestinian factions, some backed by the government and others by the rebels, had begun fighting last week, a development that allowed Syrian insurgents to take the camp.

A resident in Damascus said dozens of families were returning to the camp but that the army had erected checkpoints. Many families were still hesitant to return.

LEBANON BORDER POST TAKEN

Elsewhere, Syrian insurgents took over an isolated border post on the western frontier with Lebanon earlier this week, local residents told Reuters on Thursday.

The rebels already hold much of the terrain along Syria's northern and eastern borders with Turkey and Iraq respectively.

They said around 20 rebels from the Qadissiyah Brigade overran the post at Rankus, which is linked by road to the remote Lebanese village of Tufail.

Video footage downloaded on the Internet on Thursday, dated December 16, showed a handful of fighters dressed in khaki fatigues and wielding rifles as they kicked down a stone barricade around a small, single-storey army checkpoint.

Syrian Interior Minister Ibrahim al-Shaar arrived in Lebanon on Wednesday for treatment of wounds sustained in a bomb attack on his ministry in Damascus a week ago.

Lebanese medical sources said Shaar had shrapnel wounds in his shoulder, stomach and legs but they were not critical.

The Syrian opposition has tried to peel off defectors from the government as well as from the army, though only a handful of high-ranking officials have abandoned Assad.

The conflict has divided many Syrian families. Security forces on Thursday arrested an opposition activist who is also the relative of Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa, the Syrian Observatory said. The man was arrested along with five other activists who are considered pacifists, it said.

Sharaa, a Sunni Muslim who has few powers in Assad's Alawite-dominated power structure, said earlier this week that neither side could win the war in Syria. He called for the formation of a national unity government.

(Reporting by Erika Solomon; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

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User revolt causes Instagram to keep old rules

SAN FRANCISCO: Instagram on Thursday tried to calm a user rebellion by nixing a change that would have given the Facebook-owned mobile photo sharing service unfettered rights to people's pictures.

"The concerns we heard about from you the most focused on advertising, and what our changes might mean for you and your photos," Instagram co-founder and chief Kevin Systrom said in a blog post.

"There was confusion and real concern about what our possible advertising products could look like and how they would work," he continued.

Protests prompted Instagram to stick with wording in its original terms of service and privacy policies regarding advertising and to do away with some changes that were to take effect in January, according to Systrom.

"You also had deep concerns about whether under our new terms, Instagram had any plans to sell your content," the Instagram chief said.

"I want to be really clear: Instagram has no intention of selling your photos, and we never did. We don't own your photos, you do."

Instagram on Tuesday backed off a planned policy change that appeared to clear the way for the mobile photo sharing service to sell pictures without compensation, after users cried foul.

Changes to the Instagram privacy policy and terms of service had included wording that appeared to allow people's pictures to be used by advertisers at Instagram or Facebook worldwide, royalty-free.

Twitter and Instagram forums buzzed over the phrasing, as users debated whether to delete their accounts before the new rules kicked in.

Originally proposed portions of the new policy that rankled users included "You hereby grant to Instagram a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to use the content that you post on or through the service."

The terms also stated that "a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos, and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you."

Instagram said that the policy changes to take effect in January were part of a move to better share information with Facebook, which bought the company this year.

The original price was pegged at US$1 billion but the final value was less because of a decline in the social network's share price.

"I'm proud that Instagram has a community that feels so strongly about a product we all love," Systrom said while apologising to users and promising the offensive policy changes were gone.

-AFP/fl

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Four security trends defined 2012, will impact 2013

The Internet is slowly changing, and security experts say that today's security issues will continue to be major players in driving that change. Here are four trends that dominated headlines in 2012, and will continue to play a major role in 2013.

The Internet as governmental tool
The collective realization by governments around the world that the Internet is an excellent network for conducting surveillance, monitoring, espionage, and war, says Finnish computer security firm F-Secure's Chief Technical Officer Mikko Hypponen, may not come to full fruition in 2013. But the foundation for that change is already underway.

"There will be more operations along the lines of Olympic Games, also from other sources than US and Israel. Later on, we might look back at these first 20 years of the Web as the Golden Days, when the net was still free," he wrote in an e-mail to CNET. "Olympic Games" is the covert inter-govenrment project that birthed Stuxnet, Duqu, and Flame.

Information security expert Chris Wysopal agreed that "cyber-warfare" is becoming commonplace. "When there's a political or actual war event, we're seeing cyber-attacks parallel that. It does seem to be more pronounced. It's almost not newsworthy, as if we expect it to happen alongside a political event."

Take that in for a moment. Government-sponsored, computer-based attacks, as "almost not newsworthy," he said.

But just because these attacks are becoming more frequent doesn't mean that they don't stymie security researchers. Tomer Teller, a security evangelist and researcher at Check Point, said that he was surprised this year by the rise of "precision-targeted attacks."

"We saw that with Gauss this year, from the Stuxnet family. It had an encrypted payload, and researchers couldn't decrypt it."

Tim Rains, the director of Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing division, pointed out that these governmental actions have consequences beyond the nuclear reactors of Iran and other industrial targets.

"Eighty-five percent of the exploits against operating systems tried to take advantage of one of the vulnerabilities that Stuxnet used. A very small fraction of malware uses "zero-days", so we're seeing commodity malware writers benefits from the research of professionals," he said. "It was a trend in 2012, and we'll continue to see that in the next year."

More mobile devices, bigger targets
Experts have been talking up mobile security for several years now, and as mobile device proliferation continues, so will the security problems associated with them. Because of their very mobile, always-connected nature, experts told me that the problems will become more complex in 2013.

Lookout Mobile Security's Senior Product Manager, Derek Halliday, noted two interesting trends that his company saw in 2012. Lookout predicted and saw in 2012, "only a few dominant kinds of mobile malware," he said.

Microsoft's Rains agreed. "[The Looter exploit] is responsible for the second-most highest number of mobile threats we saw."

Halliday added, "The other thing was how geographic specific these threats were. We were surprised by the stark contrast between the U.S. and say Russia or China. If you try to run a toll fraud application at scale in the U.S., you'll encounter some problems -- a double-opt in message, government intervention," he said.

Another point Halliday made was that while
Android 4.2 is the most secure yet, with numerous security improvements, operating system fragmentation will prevent it from reaching most people until late 2013.

On the other hand, said Wysopal, the impact of mobile malware is definitely growing. "In 2012, half a percent of all mobile users got hurt by mobile malware in the U.S. That's a million people, not an insignificant number. It's a trend that is happening slower than expected, but it's not going to go away."

The malware problem is likely to remain isolated from Apple's iOS, according to Hypponen. "There's still no iPhone malware. Five years after shipping one of the most popular systems, they have no malware problem at all. That's a major accomplishment by Apple. Job well done."

Desktop threat, still a threat
Mobile is booming, with Android devices outselling Windows computers in Q3 2012, but that doesn't mean that we'll see a downturn in desktop-focused attacks.

One story that Hypponen says was underreported in 2012 was the rootkit known as ZeroAccess. "Zero Access is almost totally under the radar, yet it's a massive, massive outbreak. It's almost as big in size as Conficker, which was headline material for weeks. [Zero Access] is a commercial kit, being developed and sold by a Russian coder. [It] installs itself to the [master boot record] so it boots before Windows.

While Hypponen noted that
Windows 8 and Macs use UEFI to create secure boot procedures that prevent rootkits like Zero Access, Microsoft's Rains cautioned that eventually, and possibly in the coming year, this will force rootkits to evolve.

Mac malware got a lot of attention in the second half of 2011 and in 2012 with Flashback, and that's expected to continue. Hypponen said, "The author of the Flashback Trojan is still at large and is rumored to be working on something else. And while there have been smart security changes to the Mac OS," likely alluding to Mountain Lion's Gatekeeper, "there's a segment of the Mac-using population who are basically oblivious to the threats facing Macs, making them vulnerable to a new malware outbreak."

And across platforms, browsers remain a broad surface to attack despite ongoing improvements. Jeremiah Grossman of WhiteHat Security said that new exploits and vulnerabilities, such as CSS sniffing attacks, will continue to cause turmoil in the most popular kind of desktop program. "Let's say you just downloaded Chrome or Firefox. If I can get you to click somewhere on the screen, I can get you. These browsers are not really secure, it's death by 1,000 cuts."
we have 15 years of broken, faulty web code, we have a lot of garbage websites out there that are protecting a lot of interesting data.

Privacy and data breaches
One of the big notables in information security over the past year was the rise of awareness in data mining. Brought on by numerous privacy policy changes to high-profile social networks like Facebook, Google, and Instagram, by fast and loose trendy mobile app policies, and by shockingly large data breaches at companies that just can't be bothered investing in better database protection, privacy is becoming a key security topic.

Lookout's Halliday said that he expects privacy to be a hot topic in the coming year. Not only has the California attorney general been pushing for companies to take a stance more favorable to consumers before the government is forced to step in, he said, but consumers are more aware in general.

"Devices are collecting not just location information, but contacts and your historical record of talking to them. We'd be more than happy if there was significant progress towards [better privacy] as a goal," he said.

WhiteHat Security's Grossman pointed out that it's not just malware writers who are using exploits. Difficult to detect until recently, "CSS sniffing was being done data aggregators," he said.

Holistic security
One trend that's impossible to deny is that these security problems may start in discretely different realms, but the nature of the Internet is making them more intertwined than ever before. Malware-writing techniques pioneered for Stuxnet inspire consumer-targeted malware writers, who in turn are forced to develop new social engineering techniques as app stores, browsers, and Web site owners play Whac-a-Mole with vulnerabilities.

And issues like the potential for exploiting devices connected directly to the Internet, like smart TVs and DVD players; more creative, harder to stop social engineering; the commercialized selling of all manner of exploits; and utility and medical device hacks are expected to grow in impact.

As much as we don't want to admit it, security is becoming an issue of ongoing education. 2013 would be a good year to get going on that.

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It's already Dec. 21 in Europe, so where's doomsday?

MERIDA, Mexico Doomsday hour is here, at least in much of the world, and so still are we.

According to legend, the ancient Mayans' long-count calendar ends at midnight Thursday, ushering in the end of the world.

Didn't happen.

"This is not the end of the world. This is the beginning of the new world," Star Johnsen-Moser, an American seer, said at a gathering of hundreds of spiritualists at a convention center in the Yucatan city of Merida, an hour and a half from the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza.

"It is most important that we hold a positive, beautiful reality for ourselves and our planet. ... Fear is out of place."

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As the appointed time came and went in several parts of the world, there was no sign of the apocalypse.

Indeed, the social network Imgur posted photos of clocks turning midnight in the Asia-Pacific region with messages such as: "The world has not ended. Sincerely, New Zealand."

In Merida, the celebration of the cosmic dawn opened inauspiciously, with a fumbling of the sacred fire meant to honor the calendar's conclusion.

Gabriel Lemus, the white-haired guardian of the flame, burned his finger on the kindling and later had to scoop up a burning log that fell from the ceremonial brazier onto the stage.

Still, Lemus was convinced that it was a good start, as he was joined by about 1,000 other shamans, seers, stargazers, crystal enthusiasts, yogis, sufis and swamis.

"It is a cosmic dawn," Lemus declared. "We will recover the ability to communicate telepathically and levitate objects ... like our ancestors did."

Celebrants later held their arms in the air in a salute to the Thursday morning sun.

"The galactic bridge has been established," intoned spiritual leader Alberto Arribalzaga. "At this moment, spirals of light are entering the center of your head ... generating powerful vortexes that cover the planet."

Despite all the ritual and banter, few here actually believed the world would end Friday; the summit was scheduled to run through Sunday. Instead, participants said they were here to celebrate the birth of a new age.

A Mexican Indian seer who calls himself Ac Tah, and who has traveled around Mexico erecting small pyramids he calls "neurological circuits," said he holds high hopes for Friday.

"We are preparing ourselves to receive a huge magnetic field straight from the center of the galaxy," he said.

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Terry Kvasnik, 32, a stunt man from Manchester, England, said his motto for the day was "be in love, don't be in fear." As to which ceremony he would attend on Friday, he said with a smile, "I'm going to be in the happiest place I can."

At dozens of booths set up in the convention hall, visitors could have their auras photographed with "Chi" light, get a shamanic cleansing or buy sandals, herbs and whole-grain baked goods. Cleansing usually involves having copal incense waved around one's body.

Visitors could also learn the art of "healing drumming" with a Mexican Otomi Indian master, Dabadi Thaayroyadi, who said his slender hand-held drums are made with prayers embedded inside. The drums emit "an intelligent energy" that can heal emotional, physical and social ailments, he said.

During the opening ceremony, participants chanted mantras to the blazing Yucatan sun, which quickly burned the fair-skinned crowd.

Violeta Simarro, a secretary from Perpignan, France, taking shelter under an awning, noted that the new age won't necessarily be easy.

"It will be a little difficult at first, because the world will need a complete 'nettoyage' (cleansing), because there are so many bad things," she said.

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Police Chief Wants to Ban High-Capacity Firepower

High-capacity magazines are the deadliest of gun cartridges. They come in cases of 30, 40, 60 and even 120 rounds.

These magazines are maximum, economy-sized firepower packed into a steel cartridge. When strapped into a pistol or semi-automatic rifle, a shooter can fire non-stop until the magazine is empty. By then, the damage can be devastating.

That is why the Baltimore County Police Chief Jim Johnson wants to outlaw all but the smallest of these magazines. Johnson wants to limit them to a capacity of 10 rounds.

The fewer the bullets, the more often the shooter has to stop firing, eject the empty cartridge and load another one.

A lot can happen in the window of time it takes to reload, Johnson said.

"Folks that are being attacked have time to react, to close that distance in," he said. "I think any football player in America would like to have four-and-a-half seconds to get to the quarterback without any of the offensive players."

An expert shooter like a police officer can switch magazines in less than two seconds. But for a nervous, scared adolescent, it would take much longer, Johnson said, which can be crucial.

During the Tucson, Ariz., attack on Rep. Gabby Giffords, gunman Jared Loughner was wrestled down when he stopped shooting to reload his 9-millimeter pistol.

During the Aurora, Colo., movie theater shooting spree last July, police say James Holmes' assault came to an end when his semi-automatic rifle jammed.

"As we've seen in America today, there have been several attacks where that reload is vital," Johnson said. "Tragically, in the shooting of a congresswoman, the reload was instrumental.

"We've also seen this in Baltimore County, in a school shooting that we had, where the reload became very instrumental in allowing the teacher to actually tackle a student that was trying to reload a double-barreled shotgun," he said.

Last week at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., police believe Adam Lanza was armed with high-capacity magazines. He fired at least 30 times before having to stop to reload.

Johnson said there is no reason that the general public should have access to high-capacity magazines.

"I have to advise you that even for law enforcement, 100-round magazines, 50-round magazines, have no place for law enforcement," Johnson said. "Certainly, we believe that limiting a magazine to 10 rounds, what was in place from '94 to 2004, is wise and certainly could save lives in America."

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U.S. State Dept officials resign under pressure over Benghazi killings

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three senior U.S. State Department officials were asked to resign after an official inquiry harshly criticized their offices for failing to provide adequate security at the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, before it came under attack in September, a U.S. official said on Wednesday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Eric Boswell, the assistant secretary for diplomatic security; one of his deputies, Charlene Lamb; and an unnamed official in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs were asked to step down because of the inquiry panel's report, which did not fault Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in connection with the attack.

State Department officials declined to comment on the matter, saying it was a personnel issue. The Associated Press first reported that the three officials had resigned.

An unclassified version of the report released Tuesday by the State Department concluded that the mission was completely unprepared to deal with a September 11 attack that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

"We did conclude that certain State Department bureau-level senior officials in critical positions of authority and responsibility in Washington demonstrated a lack of leadership and management ability appropriate for senior ranks," retired Admiral Michael Mullen, one of the leaders of the inquiry, told reporters on Wednesday.

The inquiry's chair, retired Ambassador Thomas Pickering, said the panel had determined that responsibility for security shortcomings in Benghazi belonged at levels lower than Clinton's office.

"We fixed (responsibility) at the assistant secretary level, which is, in our view, the appropriate place to look for where the decision-making in fact takes place, where - if you like - the rubber hits the road," Pickering said after closed-door meetings with congressional committees.

The report by the Accountability Review Board probing the attack and comments by its two lead authors suggested that Clinton, who accepted responsibility for the incident, would not be held personally culpable.

"The secretary of state has been very clear about taking responsibility here, (yet) it was from my perspective not reasonable in terms of her having a specific level of knowledge," said Mullen, the former chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Pickering and Mullen spoke to the media after briefing members of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee and Senate Foreign Relations Committee behind closed doors on classified elements of their report.

Clinton had been expected to appear at an open hearing on Benghazi on Thursday, but is recuperating after suffering a concussion, dehydration and a stomach bug last week and will instead be represented by her top two deputies.

"GROSSLY INADEQUATE"

The unclassified version of the report cited "leadership and management" deficiencies, poor coordination among officials and "real confusion" in Washington and in the field over who had the authority to make decisions on policy and security concerns.

The scathing report could tarnish Clinton's four-year tenure as secretary of state, which has seen her consistently rated as the most popular member of President Barack Obama's Cabinet.

Clinton, who intends to step down in January, said in a letter accompanying the review that she would adopt all of its recommendations, which include stepping up security staffing and requesting more money to fortify U.S. facilities.

The National Defense Authorization Act for 2013, which is expected to go to Congress for final approval this week, includes a measure directing the Pentagon to increase the Marine Corps presence at diplomatic facilities by up to 1,000 Marines.

Some Capitol Hill Republicans who had criticized the Obama administration's handling of the Benghazi attacks said they were impressed by the report.

"It was very thorough," said Senator Johnny Isakson. Senator John Barrasso said: "It was very, very critical of major failures at the State Department at very high levels." Both spoke after the closed-door briefing.

Others, however, kept up their criticism of the administration and called for Clinton to testify as soon as she is able.

"The report makes clear the massive failure of the State Department at all levels, including senior leadership, to take action to protect our government employees abroad," Representative Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said in a statement.

Senator Bob Corker, who will be the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when the new Congress is seated early next year, said Clinton should testify about Benghazi before her replacement is confirmed by the Senate.

"I do think it's imperative for all concerned that she testify in an open session prior to any changing of the regime," Corker said.

Republicans have focused much of their firepower on U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, who appeared on television talk shows after the attack and suggested it was the result of a spontaneous protest rather than a premeditated attack.

The report concluded that there was no such protest.

Rice, widely seen as President Barack Obama's top pick to succeed Clinton, withdrew her name from consideration last week.

(Additional reporting by Tabassum Zakaria and Susan Cornwell; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Philip Barbara)

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Review slams BBC over Savile report but says no cover-up

LONDON: An official report strongly criticised the BBC's handling of allegations of child sex abuse against late presenter Jimmy Savile, but cleared the world's biggest broadcaster of a cover-up.

The findings by an independent inquiry sparked the resignation of the BBC's deputy director of news, and led to the editor and deputy editor of the programme at the centre of the scandal being replaced.

The report exposed the "chaos and confusion" at the BBC although it dismissed claims that its flagship current affairs programme Newsnight dropped an investigation into Savile so as not to jeopardise Christmas tribute shows to him.

The BBC commissioned the inquiry by former Sky News executive Nick Pollard in October during a major crisis at the corporation that cost then-director-general George Entwistle his job.

Savile, who died last year at the age of 84, was one of the BBC's top TV and radio presenters.

The child abuse claims were first made public by rival broadcaster ITV two months ago and since then police have identified 199 crimes in which Savile is a suspect, including 31 alleged rapes.

Newsnight first had evidence of the allegations a year ago, shortly after Savile's death, but it dropped the story after just a few weeks.

The Pollard report found no evidence to support claims that this was to avoid an embarrassing clash with planned Christmas tributes to the late star.

But it criticised the decision to drop the probe and the BBC's failure to deal with the ensuing crisis at the broadcaster, which it said was plagued by infighting and a "critical lack of leadership and coordination".

"The decision to drop the original investigation was flawed and the way it was taken was wrong but I believe it was done in good faith. It was not done to protect the Savile tribute programmes or for any improper reason," Pollard said.

"In my view, the most worrying aspect of the Jimmy Savile story for the BBC was not the decision to drop the story itself. It was the complete inability to deal with the events that followed."

BBC Trust chairman Chris Patten, the former governor of Hong Kong, said the BBC accepted the review in its "entirety" and looked at the failings of the corporation with "pretty searing honesty".

In an email to staff, acting director-general Tim Davie welcomed the finding that there was no cover-up but acknowledged the report had exposed "clear failings" which must now be addressed.

He announced a shake-up of staff at Newsnight, saying the programme's editor, Peter Rippon, and deputy editor, Liz Gibbons, would move to other BBC jobs.

And he said Stephen Mitchell was resigning as deputy director of BBC news and would leave next year after 38 years with the corporation.

Mitchell had stood aside pending the Pollard review, and was criticised in Wednesday's report for removing Newsnight's Savile investigation from an internal BBC list that flagged up controversial stories.

Mitchell's boss, director of news Helen Boaden, keeps her job despite being criticised for failing to take greater responsibility as the crisis grew.

Davie later told Newsnight that it had been a "particularly bad and sorry saga" but defended the lack of sackings.

"My job is not to just dismiss people, my job is to make a fair and balanced assessment of the facts," he said.

"The idea that you have to sack someone to lead to cultural change I think is just flawed."

The report also revealed that when Savile was ill a BBC executive had emailed Entwistle before he became director general to urge against preparing an obituary for the late presenter because of concerns about "the darker side" of his life.

Entwistle said he never read that email and Pollard said he found nothing to suggest anyone preparing the tribute programmes was aware of the rumours or allegations about Savile.

London police on Wednesday arrested an eighth person in connection with the Savile abuse probe, who was identified by media as the star's former producer.

The scandal over Newsnight's dropped investigation was compounded when the programme broadcast a television report last month which wrongly implicated a senior former Conservative politician, Alistair McAlpine, in child sex abuse.

The BBC was forced to apologise and pay substantial damages to McAlpine, and Entwistle resigned as director-general after only 54 days in the job.

He will be replaced by former BBC news chief and current Royal Opera House chief Tony Hall in March.

A further investigation is ongoing into what the BBC knew about Savile's activities during his time there.

- AFP/al

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Redbox Instant launches private beta for video streaming

Redbox Instant -- Verizon's stab at a video-streaming service to compete with Netflix -- was rolled out into private beta today. For the first time, users can sign up for the service and see what it has to offer.

The service will give new users, who sign up to try it in beta, unlimited streaming and four DVD credits for free for one month, according to the Web site. Once the month-long trial ends, the service will cost $8 per month.

Redbox Instant is a joint venture announced in February between Verizon and Coinstar -- the company that owns the Redbox DVD rental business. The companies have been working on developing an on-demand video-streaming service with DVD rentals. Redbox Instant will also supposedly be available on a variety of operating systems and devices, such as
Android, iOS,
Xbox 360, some Samsung TVs, and Blu-ray players.

Earlier this month, rumors leaked that the service would be fully available by the end of the year. However, it was actually the private beta that became available. The new date for the public launch of Redbox Instant is now scheduled for the end of 2013's first quarter or the beginning of the second quarter.

The service is undercutting key rival Netflix's monthly rates by charging just $6 a month for unlimited streaming -- $2 less than Netflix's comparable offer. If users want the four-DVD plan also, it costs $8 a month. A plan that includes Blu-Ray discs costs $9 a month.

While the service is more affordable than Netflix's offering, Redbox Instant won't have the same access to movies and shows. It has an agreement to get content from Epix, as well as studios such as Paramount, Lionsgate, and MGM, but it will still fall short of the breadth of offerings that Netflix boasts.

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More funerals for victims of Newtown shooting

(CBS News) NEWTOWN, Conn. - In Newtown, Connecticut, more children and a teacher -- victims of the deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School -- were laid to rest Wednesday.

Daniel Barden, 7, a victim in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., Dec. 14, 2012.

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Rex Features via AP Images

Firefighters from across the northeast came to honor seven-year-old Daniel Barden. He wanted to be a firefighter someday.

"The firefighters were here in tribute to this young child and all the souls that were lost in this community" said Eddy Bowls of New York.

Newtown massacre: Teacher Vicki Soto's heroics remembered
Complete coverage: Elementary School Rampage

Sandy Hook's fire department also stood at attention for Caroline Previdi's funeral procession. She loved to draw and dance.

Victoria Soto, a first grade teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary School, who was killed while protecting her students from a mass shooter on Dec. 14, 2012.

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Sandy Hook

And at teacher Vicki Soto's funeral, the crowd was so large that people stood outside. Inside, singer Paul Simon performed "The Sound of Silence."

"It was just heartbreaking when you see the small casket," said family friend Joseph Secola. "You think the girl is six years old. But she obviously was a lovely girl who gave joy to a lot of people, and that is what they have to hold on to."

Charlotte Bacon, the seventh student to be laid to rest since the shooting, was remembered for her love of animals and the color pink.

There is still no clear evidence as to what triggered Adam Lanza's rampage. The medical examiner is bringing in a geneticist to see if Lanza might have had a medical condition that could have played a role in the shooting.

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