Azarenka wins back-to-back Australian titles

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) ? Victoria Azarenka won her second consecutive Australian Open title, beating Li Na 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in a dramatic final that contained a break for fireworks, two medical timeouts and a nasty fall to the court by Li.

The Chinese star first tumbled to the court after twisting her left ankle in the fifth game of the second set and had it taped.

On the first point after a 10-minute pause in the third set while fireworks boomed overhead from nearby Australia Day celebrations, Li fell over again and slammed the back of her head on the court. The 2011 French Open champion was treated and had another timeout before being allowed to resume the match.

Azarenka, who broke down in tears and sobbed into her towel when the match ended, won five of the next six games to claim her second major title and retain the No. 1 ranking.

"Unfortunately, you have to go through some rough patches to achieve great things. That's what makes it so special for me," she said. "I went through that, and I'm still able to kiss that beautiful trophy."

Serena Williams, who lost in the quarterfinals, will become the new No. 2 in the rankings.

The 2-hour, 40-minute match featured 16 service breaks, with Li losing her service nine times.

On a crisp Saturday night, Azarenka won the coin toss and elected to receive, a ploy that seemed to work when a nervous Li was broken to start the match. After a double fault on the first point, Li's forehand long gave Azarenka the early lead.

When she first injured her ankle, Li was trailing 3-1 in the second set. When she came back, she won three of the next four games to tie it 4-4, but Azarenka broke back and then held her serve.

Azarenka broke in the opening game of the final set, just two games before the match was suspended for the fireworks, a planned stoppage of play that both players were notified about before the match.

While Azarenka jogged around and practiced her serving motion during the 10-minute fireworks break, Li sat on her courtside chair for most of the stoppage.

It was on the first point that she again fell to the court.

Li said she went "totally black" for two seconds after her head hit the court, and when a medical official asked her to follow her finger, "I started laughing, thinking 'This is a tennis court, not like a hospital.'"

Li said the tournament doctor saw her after the match and checked out her head and neck.

"I should be OK,' Li said.

From the outset, the capacity crowd at Rod Laver Arena was firmly behind Li, cheering loudly when she was introduced. Meanwhile, Azarenka's errors were applauded, and one spectator even mocked the loud hooting sound she makes when she hits a shot.

The chill from the crowd was a remnant of Azarenka's semifinal win over American teenager Sloane Stephens, when Azarenka was criticized for taking a questionable 10-minute medical timeout near the end of the match. She was accused of taking the time out to compose herself after she'd wasted five match points while serving for the match against Stephens. Azarenka said she needed the time out because a rib injury was making it difficult for her to breathe and she had a knee injury.

In the second set Saturday, a few fans heckled Azarenka. One man yelled, "Take a deep breath, Vicky."

By the end of the match, she appeared to have won some of the fans back. Azarenka's friend, rapper Redfoo, yelled down to her from the player box "You deserve it," and she later blew kisses to the crowd. Someone else in the crowd shouted "Victoria, we love you."

Azarekna appeared to quickly forgive the crowd, saying during the trophy presentations that she wanted to thank the fans for their support.

"I will always keep very special memories of this court and it will be in my heart forever," she said, pausing several times to find the right words. "Of course, I (almost) forgot to say congratulations to Li Na, she's had a terrific start to the year ... hope to see you in many, many more finals."

Azarenka and Li had met twice before in Grand Slam tournaments, with Li winning both times ? in the fourth round of the 2011 Australian Open and quarterfinals at the French Open. Li lost the 2011 Australian Open final to Kim Clijsters but won her first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros a few months later, beating Francesca Schiavone.

But after failing to advance past the fourth round at any major in 2012, Li hired Carlos Rodriguez, Justine Henin's former coach. The hard training he's put her through in the past four months appears to be paying dividends.

Li won a WTA tournament in China before travelling to Australia, where she advanced to the semifinals at the Sydney International.

In the men's final on Sunday, Novak Djokovic will attempt to win his third consecutive Australian Open against U.S. Open champion Andy Murray. Djokovic has had the benefit of an extra day off after an easy three-set win over David Ferrer on Thursday night, while Murray needed a tough five-setter to defeat Roger Federer.

Murray has predicted a tough match with long rallies against Djokovic, the player he beat in the final at Flushing Meadows in September.

"I'm ready for the pain," he said. "I hope it's a painful match, that will mean it will be a good one."

In the other final Sunday to end the year's first Grand Slam, the unseeded pairs of Jarmila Gajdosova and Matthew Ebden of Australia and the Czech Republic's Lucie Hradecka and Frantisek Cermak play for the mixed doubles championship.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/azarenka-wins-back-back-australian-titles-141100951--spt.html

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Cycling's doping world exposed at trial

MADRID (AP) ? Just days after Lance Armstrong's doping admission, cycling is set for more damaging revelations when the long-delayed Operation Puerto case finally goes to court in Spain.

Seven years after Spanish investigators uncovered one of cycling's most sophisticated and widespread doping networks, some of its central figures will stand trial on Monday in Madrid's Criminal Court. The case, in which 35 witnesses are called to testify, is scheduled to last until March 22.

Judge Julia Santamaria will preside as six defendants are tried. They include doctors Eufemiano and Yolanda Fuentes, brother-and-sister suspects at the heart of a complex blood-doping ring that stained cycling's reputation in Europe.

Also on trial will be Jose Luis Merino, another medical doctor; and Manolo Saiz, former ONCE and Liberty Seguros team sports director. Vicente Belda and Ignacio Labarta, both associated with the former Kelme team, will also be on trial.

Many riders will be called to testify as witnesses, including two-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador.

Cyclists will not be on trial because Santamaria can only rule on matters covered by Spanish law as it applied in May 2006, when police raids uncovered a mass of evidence in labs, offices and apartments in Madrid, Zaragoza and El Escorial.

This limitation means the scope of the trial can only focus on charges relating to actions that could "endanger public health." But that doesn't mean the trial won't lead to new revelations about athletes who cheated to get an unfair advantage.

"If one of the defendants says that, for example, he injected a certain athlete, then Spain's anti-doping agency or a sports federation could open an investigation to see if they could be subject to a ban," Eduardo Esteban, spokesman for the state prosecutor's office, told The Associated Press.

Miguel Angel Adan, spokesman for Spain's anti-doping agency, confirmed the body was studying the possibility.

According to documents reportedly seen by sports newspaper AS, defense lawyers will argue that Fuentes and his co-defendants did not endanger cyclists' health because they relied on the best technology available.

The proceedings will be followed closely by the World Anti-Doping Agency, which pushed for the case to go to court and will be a party to the trial along with the International Cycling Union, the Italian Olympic Committee, the International Association of Professional Cycling Teams, and former cyclist Jesus Manzano.

WADA is disappointed the trial is limited to cycling, as athletes from other sports were also implicated.

"We have expressed our frustration, but at least we are finally getting a hearing," WADA director general David Howman told the AP in a telephone interview. "The case was originally canned, but we pushed and insisted to get it reopened. Our expectations are limited, but our hopes are high."

"There were athletes from a number of sports involved," Howman said. "The doctor is on trial. We need to hear what he was practicing and who his patients were."

Among evidence seized were code names allegedly referring to individual riders, refrigerators stocked with numbered blood and blood plasma bags and a virtual pharmacy of performance-enhancing substances including EPO, human growth hormone, steroids and testosterone ? many of the things Armstrong admitted to using in his interview with Oprah Winfrey.

The Puerto case implicated more than 50 cyclists ? including Contador, Ivan Basso, Jan Ullrich and Alejandro Valverde ? in the use of performance-enhancing substances or practices.

The most high-profile witness is Contador, who was stripped of a third Tour de France title and banned for two years for testing positive for clenbuterol en route to winning the 2010 Tour.

Contador has since had to negotiate with the UCI and the Court of Arbitration for Sport about the size of the fine to be paid when the court rejected his assertion that the positive doping sample he provided originated from eating contaminated beef.

Contador is scheduled to testify on Feb 15. Contador's spokesman told the AP that the cyclist refused to comment ahead of the Puerto trial.

Hampered by the legal shortcomings of the trial, particularly that suspects cannot be charged retroactively for doping crimes, Spanish judges have twice tried to drop the case.

These actions have scarred Spain's reputation for combating doping just as Madrid is bidding to host the 2020 Olympics.

"Justice shouldn't be this slow. It manifests the inefficiencies of the Spanish judicial system," Esteban said. "This case in particular has taken far too long. It was difficult to place the events (under investigation) within the legal framework existing at the time, because blood isn't medicine. It generated a lot of doubts that had to be cleared up."

The government has since taken action to criminalize doping and current Sports Minister Jose Ignacio Wert has said legislation is making its way through parliament.

If found guilty of endangering athletes' health, the defendants could stand to lose their professional licenses and face two years in jail. They could avoid jail time and receive suspended sentences, Esteban said.

Valverde is the only Spanish rider who has been punished based on Puerto evidence. German cyclist Ullrich chose retirement in the face of the police discoveries and Italian cyclist Basso's implication led to a two-year ban.

Valverde was banned worldwide after a CAS panel accepted WADA and UCI arguments that he doped with the blood-boosting hormone EPO and was connected to the Puerto investigation. Valverde led cycling's world rankings when his suspension was confirmed in 2010.

At the heart of the case is the process of blood doping or blood packing.

Fuentes allegedly stored bags containing high concentrations of hemoglobin-rich red cells taken from the riders' own blood so it could be re-injected in competition when they needed a performance boost.

Bags were labeled with codes, some based on the names of riders' dogs. Basso was "Birillo," Jorg Jaksche of Germany was "Bella."

Although he denied it, Valverde owned a dog called Piti, the arbitration court heard. And Piti was the code on a bag containing blood plasma which DNA tests confirmed was his.

Fuentes is alleged to have used centrifuges to separate red blood cells from the plasma they normally float in, enabling riders injected with them to enjoy a significant boost.

Manzano, one of the plaintiffs, is a retired cyclist who turned whistleblower after suffering medical problems he said were caused by doping practices he was submitted to by Eufemiano Fuentes while riding for team Kelme.

Given Puerto's history, Manzano is not optimistic about the trial's outcome, reiterating WADA'S complaint that there were athletes from other sports who were clients of Fuentes yet to be named.

"I don't have many hopes, with the judges having opened and closed the case so many times," he told the AP by telephone. "There are 100 bags of blood that nobody knows who they belong to, and many other things, a lot of (doping) products. There are things we will never know."

___

AP Sports Writer Stephen Wilson in London and Associated Press writer Joseph Wilson in Barcelona contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cyclings-doping-world-exposed-trial-152409267--spt.html

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Crews again can't reach downed plane in Antarctica

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) ? For a second day, searchers have been unable to reach a plane believed to have crashed in an Antarctic mountain range while carrying three Canadians.

Hurricane-force winds and snow Friday prevented teams from getting to the plane. Its emergency locator started transmitting late Wednesday in mountains about 680 kilometers (420 miles) north of the South Pole.

Rescuers don't know if the men are alive. Their plane has survival gear including tents and food.

The locator stopped transmitting Thursday night and crews have been unable to establish radio contact. Rescuers say they will likely need to wait until Saturday for a break in the weather.

One man on the plane has been identified as Bob Heath from the Northwest Territories, an experienced pilot in both the Antarctic and Arctic. Rescuers say the other two men were also part of the flight crew and that no passengers were aboard.

The plane, a propeller-driven de Havilland Twin Otter, was flying from a U.S. station near the South Pole to an Italian research base in Terra Nova Bay. Rescuers believe it crashed in the Queen Alexandra mountain range at an elevation of about 3,900 meters (13,000 feet).

Winds of up to 90 knots (104 miles per hour) have continued in the area.

Steve Rendle, a spokesman for New Zealand's Rescue Coordination Centre, said rescue planes circled the area on Thursday and Friday but have been unable to spot the downed plane due to poor visibility. He said the battery on the locator beacon may have run out but that rescuers have a good fix on its location.

He said winds of up to 90 knots (104 miles per hour) continued Friday in the area.

He said that when the weather clears, crews hope to establish a forward base at the Beardmore Glacier about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the assumed crash site. He said there's a rudimentary runway and a fuel depot at the glacier.

But for now, two helicopters and a small plane remain at McMurdo Station, the main U.S. base about four hours' flight away. Rendle said the weather is forecast to improve Saturday and crews are hopeful they can reach the downed plane then. He said the elevation provides extra challenges for helicopter crews.

Heath's wife, Lucy Heath, told the Calgary Sun newspaper Thursday that she'd been called by airline officials and told "Bob's plane was down, and they were trying to reach it." She said she was just waiting for more news: "I'm so worried."

On the online networking site LinkedIn, Heath writes that he typically spends this time of year coaching and mentoring other pilots to upgrade their skills in polar regions.

The missing plane is owned and operated by Kenn Borek Air Ltd., a Canadian firm based in Calgary that charters aircraft to the U.S. Antarctic program. In a release, the National Science Foundation said the plane was flying in support of the Italian Antarctic program.

Authorities from New Zealand, Canada, the U.S. and Italy are working on the rescue operation.

Antarctica has no permanent residents, but several thousand people live there in the Southern Hemisphere summer as a number of countries send scientists and other staff to research stations. The U.S. runs the largest program, with about 850 staff at its McMurdo Station and another 200 at its Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, where the Canadians' flight originated.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/crews-again-cant-reach-downed-plane-antarctica-013607635.html

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Michael C. Hall Analyzes His Dexter's Mind, Part 1

Actor Michael C. Hall, TV's Dexter, talks with psychologist Kevin Dutton, author of The Wisdom of Psychopaths, at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City

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Actor Michael C. Hall, TV's Dexter, talks with psychologist Kevin Dutton, author of The Wisdom of Psychopaths, at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City.??????

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=2461ec14ff43bdae2b47da5ce0dd76f6

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Love triumphs over hate to make exotic new compound: Compound could be useful in batteries, semiconductors, memory devices

Jan. 24, 2013 ? Northwestern University graduate student Jonathan Barnes had a hunch for creating an exotic new chemical compound, and his idea that the force of love is stronger than hate proved correct. He and his colleagues are the first to permanently interlock two identical tetracationic rings that normally are repelled by each other. Many experts had said it couldn't be done.

On the surface, the rings hate each other because each carries four positive charges (making them tetracationic). But Barnes discovered by introducing radicals (unpaired electrons) onto the scene, the researchers could create a love-hate relationship in which love triumphs.

Unpaired electrons want to pair up and be stable, and it turns out the attraction of one ring's single electrons to the other ring's single electrons is stronger than the repelling forces.

The process links the rings not by a chemical bond but by a mechanical bond, which, once in place, cannot easily be torn asunder.

The study detailing this new class of stable organic radicals will be published Jan. 25 by the journal Science.

"It's not that people have tried and failed to put these two rings together -- they just didn't think it was possible," said Sir Fraser Stoddart, a senior author of the paper. "Now this molecule has been made. I cannot overemphasize Jonathan's achievement -- it is really outside the box. Now we are excited to see where this new chemistry leads us."

Sir Fraser is the Board of Trustees Professor of Chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern. In the late 1980s, he was one of the early pioneers to introduce an additional type of bond, the mechanical bond, into chemical compounds.

The new Northwestern compound has attractive electronic characteristics and can be made quickly and inexpensively. Down the road, it may be possible to expand this first linked pair into a longer chain-like polymer where this methodology could be useful in new technologies for batteries, semiconductors and electronic memory devices.

Driven by curiosity, Barnes only began to look at the radical chemistry of the ring cyclobis (paraquat-p-phenylene) two years ago, nearly 25 years after the ring was first made.

"I wondered what would happen if we took it all the way to the max," said Barnes, the paper's first author and a member of Stoddart's group. "Can we take two of these rings, each with four positive charges, and make them live together?"

The rings repel each other like the positive poles of two magnets. Barnes saw an opportunity where he thought he could tweak the chemistry by using radicals to overcome the hate between the two rings.

"We made these rings communicate and love each other under certain conditions, and once they were mechanically interlocked, the bond could not be broken," Barnes said.

Barnes' first strategy -- adding electrons to temporarily reduce the charge and bring the two rings together -- worked the first time he tried it. He, Stoddart and their colleagues started with a full ring and a half ring that they then closed up around the first ring (using some simple chemistry), creating the mechanical bond.

When the compound is oxidized and electrons lost, the strong positive forces come roaring back -- "It's hate on all the time," Barnes said -- but then it is too late for the rings to be parted. "That's the beauty of this system," he added.

Most organic radicals possess short lifetimes, but this unusual radical compound is stable in air and water. The compound tucks the electrons away inside the structure so they can't react with anything in the environment. The tight mechanical bond endures despite the unfavorable electrostatic interactions.

The two interlocked rings house an immense amount of charge in a mere cubic nanometer of space. The compound, a homo[2]catenane, can adopt one of six oxidation states and can accept up to eight electrons in total.

"Anything that accepts this many electrons has possibilities for batteries," Barnes said.

"Applications beckon," Stoddart agreed. "Now we need to spend more time with materials scientists and people who make devices to see how this amazing compound can be used."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Northwestern University. The original article was written by Megan Fellman.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. J. C. Barnes, A. C. Fahrenbach, D. Cao, S. M. Dyar, M. Frasconi, M. A. Giesener, D. Benitez, E. Tkatchouk, O. Chernyashevskyy, W. H. Shin, H. Li, S. Sampath, C. L. Stern, A. A. Sarjeant, K. J. Hartlieb, Z. Liu, R. Carmieli, Y. Y. Botros, J. W. Choi, A. M. Z. Slawin, J. B. Ketterson, M. R. Wasielewski, W. A. Goddard, J. F. Stoddart. A Radically Configurable Six-State Compound. Science, 2013; 339 (6118): 429 DOI: 10.1126/science.1228429

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/technology/~3/XJ_pqCmMTeI/130124150756.htm

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Seau's family sues NFL over brain injuries

FILE - This Jan. 10, 2010, file photo shows New England Patriots linebacker Junior Seau before an NFL wild-card playoff football game in Foxborough, Mass. The family of Junior Seau has sued the NFL, claiming the former linebacker's suicide was the result of brain disease caused by violent hits he sustained while playing football. The wrongful death lawsuit, filed Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013 in California Superior Court in San Diego, blames the NFL for its "acts or omissions" that hid the dangers of repetitive blows to the head. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)

FILE - This Jan. 10, 2010, file photo shows New England Patriots linebacker Junior Seau before an NFL wild-card playoff football game in Foxborough, Mass. The family of Junior Seau has sued the NFL, claiming the former linebacker's suicide was the result of brain disease caused by violent hits he sustained while playing football. The wrongful death lawsuit, filed Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013 in California Superior Court in San Diego, blames the NFL for its "acts or omissions" that hid the dangers of repetitive blows to the head. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)

FILE - In this May 11, 2012 file photo, the children of Junior Seau, right, stand on stage alongside running back LaDainian Tomlinson, left, during a public memorial service for football player Junior Seau at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. The family of Junior Seau has sued the NFL, claiming the former linebacker's suicide was the result of brain disease caused by violent hits he sustained while playing football. The wrongful death lawsuit, filed Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013 in California Superior Court in San Diego, blames the NFL for its "acts or omissions" that hid the dangers of repetitive blows to the head. The children are, from right, Tyler, Hunter, Jake and Sydney Seau. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)

Add Junior Seau's family to the thousands of people who are suing the NFL over the long-term damage caused by concussions.

Seau's ex-wife and four children sued the league Wednesday, saying the former linebacker's suicide was the result of brain disease caused by violent hits he sustained while playing football.

The wrongful death lawsuit, filed in California Superior Court in San Diego, blames the NFL for its "acts or omissions" that hid the dangers of repetitive blows to the head. It says Seau developed chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) from those hits, and accuses the NFL of deliberately ignoring and concealing evidence of the risks associated with traumatic brain injuries.

Seau died at age 43 of a self-inflicted gunshot in May. He was diagnosed with CTE, based on posthumous tests, earlier this month.

An Associated Press review in November found that more than 3,800 players have sued the NFL over head injuries in at least 175 cases as the concussion issue has gained attention in recent years. The total number of plaintiffs is 6,000 when spouses, relatives and other representatives are included.

Scores of the concussion lawsuits have been brought together before U.S. District Judge Anita B. Brody in Philadelphia.

"Our attorneys will review it and respond to the claims appropriately through the court," the NFL said in a statement Wednesday.

Helmet manufacturer Riddell Inc., also is a defendant, with the Seau family saying Riddell was "negligent in their design, testing, assembly, manufacture, marketing, and engineering of the helmets" used by NFL players. The suit says the helmets were unreasonably dangerous and unsafe.

Riddell issued a statement saying it is, "confident in the integrity of our products and our ability to successfully defend our products against challenges."

Seau was one of the best linebackers during his 20 seasons in the NFL, retiring in 2009.

"We were saddened to learn that Junior, a loving father and teammate, suffered from CTE," the family said in a statement released to the AP. "While Junior always expected to have aches and pains from his playing days, none of us ever fathomed that he would suffer a debilitating brain disease that would cause him to leave us too soon.

"We know this lawsuit will not bring back Junior. But it will send a message that the NFL needs to care for its former players, acknowledge its decades of deception on the issue of head injuries and player safety, and make the game safer for future generations."

Plaintiffs are listed as Gina Seau, Junior's ex-wife; Junior's children Tyler, Sydney, Jake and Hunter, and Bette Hoffman, trustee of Seau's estate.

The lawsuit accuses the league of glorifying the violence in pro football, and creating the impression that delivering big hits "is a badge of courage which does not seriously threaten one's health."

It singles out NFL Films and some of its videos for promoting the brutality of the game.

"In 1993's 'NFL Rocks,' Junior Seau offered his opinion on the measure of a punishing hit: 'If I can feel some dizziness, I know that guy is feeling double (that)," the suit says.

The NFL consistently has denied allegations similar to those in the lawsuit.

"The NFL, both directly and in partnership with the NIH, Centers for Disease Control and other leading organizations, is committed to supporting a wide range of independent medical and scientific research that will both address CTE and promote the long-term health and safety of athletes at all levels," the league told the AP after it was revealed Seau had CTE.

The lawsuit claims money was behind the NFL's actions.

"The NFL knew or suspected that any rule changes that sought to recognize that link (to brain disease) and the health risk to NFL players would impose an economic cost that would significantly and adversely change the profit margins enjoyed by the NFL and its teams," the Seaus said in the suit.

The National Institutes of Health, based in Bethesda, Md., studied three unidentified brains, one of which was Seau's, and said the findings on Seau were similar to autopsies of people "with exposure to repetitive head injuries."

"It was important to us to get to the bottom of this, the truth," Gina Seau told the AP then. "And now that it has been conclusively determined from every expert that he had obviously had CTE, we just hope it is taken more seriously. You can't deny it exists, and it is hard to deny there is a link between head trauma and CTE. There's such strong evidence correlating head trauma and collisions and CTE."

In the final years of his life, Seau went through wild behavior swings, according to Gina and to 23-year-old son, Tyler. There also were signs of irrationality, forgetfulness, insomnia and depression.

"He emotionally detached himself and would kind of 'go away' for a little bit," Tyler Seau said. "And then the depression and things like that. It started to progressively get worse."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-01-23-Seau-Lawsuit/id-7417eb03153a44cb858e8023ad0bd95a

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Watch live: Kerry poised for easy confirmation as State pick

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry was poised for an easy confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Thursday as President Barack Obama's nominee to be the next secretary of state.

Kerry, a Democrat who chairs the committee hearing his nomination, was introduced by a star-studded panel?his Massachusetts colleague, Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren; Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain; and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is stepping down.

"John is the right choice to carry forth the Obama administration foreign policy, and I urge his speedy confirmation," Clinton said. "He will bring a record of leadership and service that is exemplary."

Clinton, who a day earlier testified before the committee on the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, in which U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed, said Kerry was "committed to doing whatever it takes to prevent another attack and protect our people in posts around the world."

Kerry praised Clinton for serving "above and beyond the call of duty" at State and said he would work hard to meet the standard she had set. "I can pledge to you that with the consent of the Senate I will do everything in my power, summon every energy and all of my focus to build on her record and the president's vision," Kerry said.

A 28-year Senate veteran, Kerry implored the panel to set a model for the rest of the world by putting aside political dysfunction and working to improve the economy.

"The greatest challenge to America's foreign policy will be in your hands, not mine," Kerry said. "The first order of business ... as we work to help other countries create order, our first priority will be that America at last puts its own fiscal house in order."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/kerry-poised-easy-confirmation-secretary-state-160334437--politics.html

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