Hip Implant’s Risks Inadequately Assessed, DePuy Report Found in 2010

A review conducted internally by Johnson & Johnson soon after it recalled a troubled hip implant found that the company had not adequately assessed the device’s potential risks before it was used in more than 90,000 patients, court testimony on Thursday showed.

The engineering report, which was done in 2010, also found that Johnson & Johnson’s orthopedic unit had used inadequate or incorrect standards in trying to assess some of those risks before first selling the implant in 2003. The device at issue — the Articular Surface Replacement, or A.S.R. — proved to be among the most flawed orthopedic devices sold in recent decades.

The report was introduced on Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court, in the first A.S.R.-related lawsuit to go to trial against the DePuy Orthopaedics division of Johnson & Johnson. More than 10,000 similar lawsuits have been filed in the United States.

In videotaped testimony shown in court, Jimmy Smith, a compliance manager at DePuy, was asked about the report, and he said it indicated that company officials had not used appropriate engineering controls to try to anticipate the device’s problems.

“They did their job, but they could have done it better,” Mr. Smith said.

Separately, a DePuy engineer, Graham Isaac, testified on Thursday that before selling the A.S.R., the company only tested its performance on laboratory equipment at one angle of implantation.

Depending on the surgical technique and a patient’s build, orthopedic surgeons can implant the cup component of an artificial hip at a variety of angles. And because the A.S.R. had a design flaw, normal variance from the single angle at which DePuy had tested it made it more likely for the joint’s cup and ball components to strike each other, releasing metallic debris inside a patient.

DePuy conducted the post-mortem review of the A.S.R. in November 2010, just three months after it recalled the all-metal implant, but it never released the analysis. It also, apparently, did not conduct a similar review in response to the mounting number of complaints about the device that it received from doctors and others in 2008 and 2009.

Lorie Gawreluk, a spokeswoman for DePuy, said that she could not comment on any details of the lawsuit, but that the company believed that the evidence would show it acted appropriately. The trial’s proceedings were monitored over the Courtroom View Network.

The A.S.R. is projected to fail within five years in about 40 percent of patients who received the implant. That early failure rate, which is expected to grow over time, is many times higher than the failure rate for most hip replacements.

In the post-recall review in 2010, DePuy engineers examined the criteria and “controls,” or standards, that were used nearly a decade earlier when company officials tried to anticipate how the A.S.R. might perform. Because the version of the device that was sold in the United States was never clinically tested in patients, officials used the controls to assess the implant.

Among other things, DePuy officials failed to anticipate that the A.S.R. would have a high rate of wear as a patient moved, even though the control referenced in the device’s records demonstrated “that the product is more likely to experience contact between the head and rim” than competing implants.

In previously recorded testimony presented in court on Wednesday, DePuy’s president, Andrew Ekdahl, was shown an e-mail in which he was warned about the A.S.R.’s problems nearly three years before it was recalled.

Mr. Ekdahl and other DePuy executives have asserted that they acted properly and in a timely fashion to the device’s problems. The company spokeswoman, Ms. Gawreluk, said Mr. Ekdahl would not be made available for an interview.

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Giffords testifies at heated Senate hearing on gun control

WASHINGTON — "Speaking is difficult, but I need to say something important," former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords told her onetime colleagues. "Violence is a big problem. Too many children are dying. Too many children. We must do something.

"It would be hard, but the time is now. You must act."

Her words, read from a single, handwritten page, were among the camera-ready scenes as the Senate began hearings on gun control Wednesday, in a charged atmosphere with each side reaching for emotional force.

The former congresswoman, still severely disabled after being shot in the head two years ago at an outdoor appearance in her Tucson district, spoke for barely a minute, breaking the traditional protocol that calls for senators to make opening statements before witnesses give testimony.

Then she made her way from the room, leaving behind her husband, retired Navy Capt. Mark E. Kelly, a former space shuttle astronaut. In a reminder of the pervasiveness of gun violence in this country, Kelly informed senators that three people had just been wounded by a gunman at an office building in Phoenix. (At least one of the victims later died.)

At the opposite end of a long, polished table sat the lead witness for the opposing side, National Rifle Assn. Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre. He and Kelly barely interacted save for a brief handshake at the hearing's close.

The space between the two could have served as a metaphor for much of the hearing, where the formal politeness of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing room did little to mask the continued wide division over gun legislation.

Democrats called for stronger laws to limit the sale of guns; Republicans insisted that existing laws were being under-enforced and questioned the need for new ones.

The shootings in Tucson and Newtown, Conn., where 20 first-graders were killed last month, "are terrible tragedies," said the senior Republican on the panel, Iowa Sen. Charles E. Grassley, but they "should not be used to put forward every gun control measure that has been floating around for years."

Off stage, some senators have begun to move toward agreement on at least one part of the gun package pushed by President Obama — a measure to tighten the system of background checks for gun purchases.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), who is crafting a background checks bill, announced at the hearing that he was "having productive conversations with colleagues on both sides of the aisle, including a good number with high NRA ratings."

That agreement does not extend to the NRA itself, as LaPierre made clear.

"Law-abiding gun owners will not accept blame for the acts of violent or deranged criminals," he said.

Later, he specifically rejected the idea of universal background checks for gun purchases. "My problem with background checks is you're never going to get criminals to go through universal background checks," he said, prompting a heated exchange with Illinois Sen. Richard J. Durbin.

"Mr. LaPierre, that's the point," Durbin interjected. "The criminals won't go to purchase the guns, because there will be a background check. We'll stop them from the original purchase."

LaPierre was more amenable to prosecution of straw purchasers — people who buy guns for others, often those prohibited from buying firearms themselves. Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and Durbin introduced a bill last week to combat gun trafficking. Sens. Mark Steven Kirk (R-Ill.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) unveiled another gun trafficking proposal Wednesday.

While prospects for expanded background checks and tougher trafficking laws have grown, the prospects for an assault weapons ban, eagerly sought by some gun control advocates, seem dim.

Leahy notably did not endorse the ban in his comments during the hearing. Nor did Kelly, who instead called for a "careful and civil conversation about the lethality of firearms we permit to be legally bought and sold in this country" while reminding senators of the toll that mass shootings have taken.

"Gabby's gift for speech is a distant memory," Kelly said, referring to his wife by her nickname. "She struggles to walk, and she is partially blind." But, he added, "we aren't here as victims. We're speaking to you today as Americans."

He and Giffords "have our firearms for the same reasons that millions of others have guns, for hunting and target shooting," he said. "But rights demand responsibility." After the hearing, Giffords and Kelly met with Obama at the White House.

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Rape trial of teenaged football players to be open to public: Ohio judge

(Reuters) – The controversial trial of two high school football players accused of raping a classmate will remain open to the public and will not be relocated to another town, an Ohio judge ruled on Wednesday.

Prosecutors and an attorney representing the accuser had sought a closed trial, arguing that public access to the juvenile trial would subject the accuser to unwanted publicity and make potential witnesses reluctant to testify.

Visiting Hamilton County Judge Tom Lipps said the presence of the media would prevent inaccurate reporting and enhance public confidence in the juvenile justice system, according to his written ruling, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.

“An open hearing is especially valuable where rumors, mischaracterizations and opinions unsupported by facts have reportedly been repeated in social media postings and other published outlets,” Lipps wrote. “An open hearing will diminish the influence of such postings and publications.”

Prosecutors have accused Ma’Lik Richmond and Trent Mays, both 16, of raping a classmate at a party attended by many teammates last August in Steubenville, a close-knit city of 19,000 near the Pennsylvania border.

The case attracted national attention after the hacker activist group Anonymous publicized a picture of two young men carrying a girl by her wrists and ankles and released a video showing other young men joking about the alleged assault.

Richmond’s lawyer, Walter Madison, said previously on CNN that his client was one of the young men in the photograph – which he said was taken out of context – but does not appear in the video. A lawyer for Mays has not publicly commented on the postings.

Community leaders have accused authorities of protecting the school’s popular football program by not charging more players who could have prevented the alleged attack.

Lipps also ruled on Wednesday that the trial will remain in Steubenville. He set a trial date for March 13.

Reuters generally does not identify people who say they have been victims of sex crimes.

(Editing by Paul Thomasch, Bernard Orr)

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Final cut: The gems and stars left off the Oscars list

(Reuters) – If I could remove any word from Oscar conversations, it would be “snubbed.” It’s catchy and makes good headline fodder, but it implies that a cabal of Academy members sat in a room and consciously decided to ostracize this actor or that moviemaker. These ballots are filled out by 6,000 to 7,000 voters, ranging from visual effects experts to screenwriters to studio chiefs. I can’t envision secret meetings to decide the fate of each candidate.

Jamie Foxx (“Django Unchained”) and veteran French star Jean-Louis Trintignant were both considered serious contenders for a Best Actor nomination; neither made the final cut, even though Trintignant’s co-star in “Amour,” Emmanuelle Riva, was nominated for Best Actress. At one point, the gifted John Hawkes was touted as a shoo-in for his brilliant performance in “The Sessions.” But I’ve learned never to use the word “shoo-in” where the Oscars are concerned.

There were fewer surprises in the Best Actress category, although some pundits had predicted Helen Mirren for “Hitchcock,” Marion Cotillard for the French import “Rust and Bone” and Rachel Weisz, who won the New York Film Critics’ award, for “The Deep Blue Sea.” As it happens, they took a collective backseat to the youngest female ever nominated in this category, 9-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis (“Beasts of the Southern Wild”) and the oldest, 82-year-old Riva.

The always-crowded Supporting Actor and Actress rosters excluded such prominent figures as Nicole Kidman, Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson and Maggie Smith, while admitting Philip Seymour Hoffman for what is clearly a leading role in “The Master.”

But the biggest buzz concerns this year’s Best Director lineup. Experienced Oscar watchers could see this brewing, as the current Oscar setup has a built-in dilemma. To understand it, one need only do the math: With the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences now enabling nine films to compete for Best Picture — in fact, they allow as many as 10 — but retaining only five slots for Best Director, at least four world-class filmmakers are guaranteed to be left out in the cold. How those four happened to be Kathryn Bigelow, Ben Affleck, Tom Hooper and Quentin Tarantino this year is anybody’s guess.

Only members of the director’s branch get to nominate directors; that’s an elite group of fewer than 400 people. The same constituency didn’t cite Affleck for his terrific movie “The Town” a few years ago but did support Bigelow and Hooper, who went on to win for “The Hurt Locker” and “The King’s Speech,” respectively. They were early boosters of Tarantino, who won an Oscar for Best Screenplay for “Pulp Fiction” in 1994 and was nominated for Best Director for his last film, “Inglorious Basterds.” It may be true that they’ve undervalued Ben Affleck, but there is no logic to the omission of the three other Best Picture directors.

What’s more, the Academy’s director lineup doesn’t coincide with that of the Directors Guild of America, which historically, and almost invariably, has forecast the Oscar winner. But that was before the Academy opened up the Best Picture category beyond its traditional five slots, so now all bets are off. (For the record, this year’s DGA nominees are Affleck, Bigelow, Hooper, Ang Lee and Steven Spielberg.)

WHAT ABOUT ‘TED’?

Every round of Oscar nominations brings its share of surprises and disappointments. Many people I know were counting on Judi Dench to be up for Best Supporting Actress, which would have made her the first person to be singled out for a performance in a James Bond movie in that series’ 50-year history. There was also great enthusiasm for Javier Bardem‘s performance as the movie’s colorfully sinister villain. Both Dench and Bardem are former winners, so the Academy actors’ branch clearly appreciates them … just not enough to make this year’s finals. Even so, “Skyfall” earned a record five nominations, including one for Thomas Newman’s rousing music score and one for cinematographer Roger Deakins, who has been nominated 10 times and never taken home one of those gold statuettes. (It’s the first time around for Adele, who sang and co-wrote the movie’s theme song.)

Over the course of the year, a handful of other films elicited critical notice that might have led to Oscar recognition: Richard Linklater’s “Bernie” offered Jack Black an unusually juicy part as a real-life Texas character who may or may not have murdered his older female companion. Novelist Stephen Chbosky’s adaptation of his best-selling book “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” earned warm reviews for its deeply felt look at high school outcasts. Co-star Ezra Miller has been singled out in particular amid a talented young cast. Two of the best performances of the year were given by Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña in David Ayer’s vibrant L.A. cop drama “End of Watch,” but their work has been largely overlooked. Fortunately, Peña is in the running for an Independent Spirit Award as Best Supporting Actor.

Christopher Nolan loyalists are still miffed that the filmmaker has been nominated for two of his screenplays (“Memento” and “Inception”) but never recognized as Best Director — and that the finale in his Batman trilogy, “The Dark Knight Rises,” did not earn a Best Picture nod this year.

Omissions don’t come only in the boldface categories that attract the lion’s share of attention. It’s understandable that “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” “Life of Pi,” Marvel’s “The Avengers,” “Prometheus” and “Snow White and the Huntsman” are competing for Best Achievement in Visual Effects. But if you stop and think about it, was there a more convincing or persuasive use of “movie magic” this year than a teddy bear come to life sharing the screen with Mark Wahlberg in Seth MacFarlane’s “Ted”? To me, that’s the most amazing kind of trickery, because you’re forced to believe what your brain tells you can’t be true. Yet “Ted” didn’t even make the Academy’s short list before the final five contenders were chosen.

For my money, there is one 2012 release that has truly been robbed. It happens to be a box-office blockbuster, which offers its creators (and backers) some consolation, I’m sure. Still, “The Avengers” is the best comic book superhero movie of this, or possibly, any year, in large part because of Joss Whedon’s sensationally smart, funny screenplay. There is none of the self-seriousness that mars “The Dark Knight Rises” or the hollowness of earlier Marvel efforts like “Thor.” It doesn’t run out of steam like “Captain America” or simply repeat itself like “Iron Man 2.”

Whedon pulls off the formidable feat of assembling an all-star cast of characters and giving each a purpose. He takes a two-dimensional villain from “Thor” and makes him truly menacing. He breathes new life into the lumbering Hulk. He makes us care about all these characters and gives them a cause worth fighting (and rooting) for. On top of that, he infuses his screenplay with a welcome dose of humor, including some of the funniest moments ever found in an ostensibly serious superhero saga. (Here’s a sample exchange. Bruce Banner: I don’t think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy’s brain is a bag full of cats. You can smell crazy on him. Thor: Have a care how you speak! Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard and he is my brother! Natasha Romanoff: He killed 80 people in two days. Thor: He’s adopted.)

Moviegoers around the world loved the result, and even critics sang its praises. But aside from a nomination for its excellent visual effects, the movie was shut out. Normally, this wouldn’t be shocking, as the Academy tends to shun popcorn movies except in the technical categories, but “The Avengers” is no ordinary popcorn movie.

Then again, if the Oscars followed a predictable path — mine or anyone else’s — they wouldn’t be the Oscars. The final surprises will be unveiled on February 24.

Film critic and historian Leonard Maltin is perhaps best known for his annual paperback reference book, “Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide.” He hosts “Maltin on Movies” for Reelz, introduces films on Comcast and teaches as the University of Southern California School for Cinematic Arts. He has written many books on film and holds court at www.leonardmaltin.com.

(Editing by Kathy Jones, Arlene Getz and Douglas Royalty)

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During Trial, New Details Emerge on DuPuy Hip

When Johnson & Johnson announced the appointment in 2011 of an executive to head the troubled orthopedics division whose badly flawed artificial hip had been recalled, the company billed the move as a fresh start.

But that same executive, it turns out, had supervised the implant’s introduction in the United States and had been told by a top company consultant three years before the device was recalled that it was faulty.

In addition, the executive also held a senior marketing position at a time when Johnson & Johnson decided not to tell officials outside the United States that American regulators had refused to allow sale of a version of the artificial hip in this country.

The details about the involvement of the executive, Andrew Ekdahl, with the all-metal hip implant emerged Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court during the trial of a patient lawsuit against the DePuy Orthopaedics division of Johnson & Johnson. More than 10,000 lawsuits have been filed against DePuy in connection with the device — the Articular Surface Replacement, or A.S.R. — and the Los Angeles case is the first to go to trial.

The information about the depth of Mr. Ekdahl’s involvement with the implant may raise questions about DePuy’s ability to put the A.S.R. episode behind it.

Asked in an e-mail why the company had promoted Mr. Ekdahl, a DePuy spokeswoman, Lorie Gawreluk, said the company “seeks the most accomplished and competent people for the job.”

On Wednesday, portions of Mr. Ekdahl’s videotaped testimony were shown to jurors in the Los Angeles case. Other top DePuy marketing executives who played roles in the A.S.R. development are expected to testify in coming days. Mr. Ekdahl, when pressed in the taped questioning on whether DePuy had recalled the A.S.R. because it was unsafe, repeatedly responded that the company had recalled it “because it did not meet the clinical standards we wanted in the marketplace.”

Before the device’s recall in mid-2010, Mr. Ekdahl and those executives all publicly asserted that the device was performing extremely well. But internal documents that have become public as a result of litigation conflict with such statements.

In late 2008, for example, a surgeon who served as one of DePuy’s top consultants told Mr. Ekdahl and two other DePuy marketing officials that he was concerned about the cup component of the A.S.R. and believed it should be “redesigned.” At the time, DePuy was aggressively promoting the device in the United States as a breakthrough and it was being implanted into thousands of patients.

“My thoughts would be that DePuy should at least de-emphasize the A.S.R. cup while the clinical results are studied,” that consultant, Dr. William Griffin, wrote.

A spokesman for Dr. Griffin said he was not available for comment.

The A.S.R., whose cup and ball components were both made of metal, was first sold by DePuy in 2003 outside the United States for use in an alternative hip replacement procedure called resurfacing. Two years later, DePuy started selling another version of the A.S.R. for use here in standard hip replacement that used the same cup component as the resurfacing device. Only the standard A.S.R. was sold in the United States; both versions were sold outside the country.

Before the device recall in mid-2010, about 93,000 patients worldwide received an A.S.R., about a third of them in this country. Internal DePuy projections estimate that it will fail in 40 percent of those patients within five years; a rate eight times higher than for many other hip devices.

Mr. Ekdahl testified via tape Wednesday that he had been placed in charge of the 2005 introduction of the standard version of the A.S.R. in this country. Within three years, he and other DePuy executives were receiving reports that the device was failing prematurely at higher than expected rates, apparently because of problems related to the cup’s design, documents disclosed during the trial indicate.

Along with other DePuy executives, he also participated in a meeting that resulted in a proposal to redesign the A.S.R. cup. But that plan was dropped, apparently because sales of the implant had not justified the expense, DePuy documents indicate.

In the face of growing complaints from surgeons about the A.S.R., DePuy officials maintained that the problems were related to how surgeons were implanting the cup, not from any design flaw. But in early 2009, a DePuy executive wrote to Mr. Ekdahl and other marketing officials that the early failures of the A.S.R. resurfacing device and the A.S.R. traditional implant, known as the XL, were most likely design-related.

“The issue seen with A.S.R. and XL today, over five years post-launch, are most likely linked to the inherent design of the product and that is something we should recognize,” that executive, Raphael Pascaud wrote in March 2009.

Last year, The New York Times reported that DePuy executives decided in 2009 to phase out the A.S.R. and sell existing inventories weeks after the Food and Drug Administration asked the company for more safety data about the implant.

The F.D.A. also told the company at that time that it was rejecting its efforts to sell the resurfacing version of the device in the United States because of concerns about “high concentration of metal ions” in the blood of patients who received it.

DePuy never disclosed the F.D.A. ruling to regulators in other countries where it was still marketing the resurfacing version of the implant.

During a part of that period, Mr. Ekdahl was overseeing sales in Europe and other regions for DePuy. When The Times article appeared last year, he issued a statement, saying that any implication that the F.D.A. had determined there were safety issues with the A.S.R. was “simply untrue.” “This was purely a business decision,” Mr. Ekdahl stated at that time.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: January 30, 2013

An earlier version of this article, in the summary, described the start of the DePuy trial incorrectly. It began last week, not this week.

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Chinese Hackers Infiltrate New York Times Computers

SAN FRANCISCO — For the last four months, Chinese hackers have persistently attacked The New York Times, infiltrating its computer systems and getting passwords for its reporters and other employees.

The New York Times published an article in October about the wealth of the family of China's prime minister, Wen Jiabao, in both English and Chinese

After surreptitiously tracking the intruders to study their movements and help erect better defenses to block them, The Times and computer security experts have expelled the attackers and kept them from breaking back in.

The timing of the attacks coincided with the reporting for a Times investigation, published online on Oct. 25, that found that the relatives of Wen Jiabao, China’s prime minister, had accumulated a fortune worth several billion dollars through business dealings.

Security experts hired by The Times to detect and block the computer attacks gathered digital evidence that Chinese hackers, using methods that some consultants have associated with the Chinese military in the past, breached The Times’s network. They broke into the e-mail accounts of its Shanghai bureau chief, David Barboza, who wrote the reports on Mr. Wen’s relatives, and Jim Yardley, The Times’s South Asia bureau chief in India, who previously worked as bureau chief in Beijing.

“Computer security experts found no evidence that sensitive e-mails or files from the reporting of our articles about the Wen family were accessed, downloaded or copied,” said Jill Abramson, executive editor of The Times.

The hackers tried to cloak the source of the attacks on The Times by first penetrating computers at United States universities and routing the attacks through them, said computer security experts at Mandiant, the company hired by The Times. This matches the subterfuge used in many other attacks that Mandiant has tracked to China.

The attackers first installed malware — malicious software — that enabled them to gain entry to any computer on The Times’s network. The malware was identified by computer security experts as a specific strain associated with computer attacks originating in China. More evidence of the source, experts said, is that the attacks started from the same university computers used by the Chinese military to attack United States military contractors in the past.

Security experts found evidence that the hackers stole the corporate passwords for every Times employee and used those to gain access to the personal computers of 53 employees, most of them outside The Times’s newsroom. Experts found no evidence that the intruders used the passwords to seek information that was not related to the reporting on the Wen family.

No customer data was stolen from The Times, security experts said.

Asked about evidence that indicated the hacking originated in China, and possibly with the military, China’s Ministry of National Defense said, “Chinese laws prohibit any action including hacking that damages Internet security.” It added that “to accuse the Chinese military of launching cyberattacks without solid proof is unprofessional and baseless.”

The attacks appear to be part of a broader computer espionage campaign against American news media companies that have reported on Chinese leaders and corporations.

Last year, Bloomberg News was targeted by Chinese hackers, and some employees’ computers were infected, according to a person with knowledge of the company’s internal investigation, after Bloomberg published an article on June 29 about the wealth accumulated by relatives of Xi Jinping, China’s vice president at the time. Mr. Xi became general secretary of the Communist Party in November and is expected to become president in March. Ty Trippet, a spokesman for Bloomberg, confirmed that hackers had made attempts but said that “no computer systems or computers were compromised.”

Signs of a Campaign

The mounting number of attacks that have been traced back to China suggest that hackers there are behind a far-reaching spying campaign aimed at an expanding set of targets including corporations, government agencies, activist groups and media organizations inside the United States. The intelligence-gathering campaign, foreign policy experts and computer security researchers say, is as much about trying to control China’s public image, domestically and abroad, as it is about stealing trade secrets.

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Kerry is easily confirmed as secretary of State

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to confirm Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) as secretary of State, filling a crucial national security spot in President Obama's second-term Cabinet.

Kerry, who ran for president as the Democratic nominee in 2004, will replace Hillary Rodham Clinton, who steps down as America's top diplomat Friday.

After the 94-3 vote, Kerry submitted a letter of resignation, effective Friday, to give up the Senate seat he has held since 1985. He will take the oath of office in a private ceremony.

In a White House statement, Obama praised Kerry as "a champion of American global leadership."

"John has earned the respect of leaders around the world and the confidence of Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, and I am confident he will make an extraordinary secretary of State," Obama said.

Obama's nominee for secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, has his confirmation hearing Thursday. Unlike Kerry, the former Republican senator from Nebraska is expected to face considerable opposition in the Senate.

Kerry failed to win only three Republican votes — from Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, both of Texas, and Sen. James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma.

A spokesman for Cornyn said Kerry supported liberal positions that most Texans opposed. Cruz has criticized Kerry, a decorated Vietnam combat veteran, as anti-military.

Earlier Tuesday, Kerry received the unanimous endorsement of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in a voice vote. He served on the committee for 28 years and was chairman for the last four.

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), the ranking Republican on the committee, praised Kerry as a "realist" on foreign affairs issues, and said he had always been "open to discussion" with members of the other party.

Several Republican senators had promoted Kerry for the job as an alternative to Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Rice withdrew her name from consideration amid mounting Republican criticism of her statements on TV talk shows after the deadly Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya.

Kerry faces formidable challenges in his new job.

Obama's first administration made little headway at solving foreign policy problems in Iran, Syria, North Korea and elsewhere. Kerry also will deal with a White House that prefers to keep decisions on key issues of war and peace in its own hands.

During his confirmation hearing last week and other appearances, Kerry gave some signals of what he intends to emphasize.

He said he would begin an effort to renew Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, a process that has been nearly dead since the Obama administration's opening initiative was abandoned two years ago.

Kerry also said he intended to work toward preventing global warming. The momentum of that effort also slowed in Obama's first term.

His resignation from the Senate starts the clock on a special election in Massachusetts to fill his seat until his term expires in January 2015. Gov. Deval Patrick, a Democrat, is expected to call the election on June 25.

Patrick will name an interim senator to serve until voters go to the polls. Possible candidates include Victoria Reggie Kennedy, widow of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy; and former Rep. Barney Frank, who has publicly expressed interest in the temporary posting.

Former Republican Sen. Scott Brown, who lost an expensive 2012 reelection bid against Democrat Elizabeth Warren, has yet to signal whether he will run again. He is said to be considering a 2014 campaign for governor.

As Kerry moved toward his new role, Clinton did a final televised group interview with students and journalists at locations around the world. She was asked whether she intended to run for president in 2016.

"I right now am not inclined to do that," she said. Her immediate priority, she said, was "catching up on about 20 years of sleep deprivation."

paul.richter@latimes.com

michael.memoli@latimes.com

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BlackBerry 10 said to be inadequate for helping RIM overcome its ‘demons’

After hitting a seven-year low of $ 6.22 this past summer, shares of Research in Motion (RIMM) have rebounded and climbed more than 100% in the past six months. The company that was previously written off by Wall Street investors has seen a significant boost in recent months as anticipation grows for its BlackBerry 10 operating system. But while a number of analysts have voiced their support for RIM, not everyone is convinced.

[More from BGR: Apple’s 128GB iPad shows the world exactly what Apple does best]

Jan Dawson of Ovum explained, per Benzinga, that RIM continues to “face the twin demons of consumer-driven buying power and a chronic inability to appeal to mature market consumers,” and he believes BlackBerry 10 won’t change this. The analyst said that due to a strong user base of 79 million subscribers and profitability still in the black, the company will remain for years to come. He was quick to note, however, that its glory days are in the past and “it is only a matter of time before it reaches a natural end.”

[More from BGR: Apple unveils new 128GB iPad]

Dawson previously wrote that RIM’s strategy seems to be focused on building the best devices for current BlackBerry users “rather than something that will necessarily win converts from other platforms.”

“The points of differentiation RIM has focused on in teasers for the new platform confirm this – better multitasking, productivity, email, contacts and calendar applications and so on, rather than a better gaming, content consumption or social networking experience,” he said.

Shares of RIM are down more than 6% on Monday, a day before the company is set to unveil its BlackBerry 10 operating system.

This article was originally published on BGR.com

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Justin Timberlake’s new album ’20/20′ is due out in March

(Reuters) – Singer-turned-actor Justin Timberlake has set a March date for his comeback album – his first in more than six years.

RCA Records said on Tuesday “The 20/20 Experience,” the former N’Sync boy band member’s follow-up to 2006′s “FutureSex/LoveSounds” and only his third album ever, would be released on March 19.

In recent years, Timberlake, 31, has focused more on films and business ventures ranging from restaurants to a clothing line, and reviving social networking site Myspace, of which he is part owner. He remarked in a recent video that creating music involved “physical torture” for him.

“Suit & Tie,” the first single off his forthcoming album, fell short of sales expectations for its first week. The song, featuring rapper Jay-Z, sold 314,000 downloads last week. Industry experts had expected about 350,000 downloads.

Top menswear designer Tom Ford collaborated with Timberlake, designing suits worn in the “Suit & Tie” video as well as styling the production and the release’s artwork.

Timberlake will perform his first concert in five years during a private Super Bowl-weekend event in New Orleans on February 2 at an invitation-only concert.

Timberlake posted on Twitter about the forthcoming game, saying among other things: “This is gonna be a GREAT Super Bowl!” and “Oh wait … I don’t have tickets. Dammit! Anybody know anybody?? LOL!”

(Reporting by Chris Michaud; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Philip Barbara)

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Report Links Rodriguez and Others to Clinic and P.E.D.’s

Investigators for Major League Baseball created an improvised war room in the commissioner’s Park Avenue offices in Manhattan in recent months, mapping out potential evidence that would tie an anti-aging clinic in Coral Gables, Fla., to the possible use of performance-enhancing drugs by some of baseball’s more prominent players. 

But because the investigators cannot compel witnesses to talk, they could do nothing more than scrutinize the clinic. As a result, they found themselves standing by awkwardly on Tuesday as a weekly Miami newspaper reported that it had obtained medical records from the clinic that tied a half-dozen players — Alex Rodriguez, Melky Cabrera, Gio Gonzalez, Bartolo Colon, Nelson Cruz and Yasmani Grandal — to the use of banned substances like human growth hormone.

The newspaper, Miami New Times, said it had received the records from a former employee of the clinic, which is now closed, and that it included handwritten notations listing various drugs that were allegedly distributed to various players. At least some of those documents were displayed online by the newspaper. However, the documents have not been independently authenticated and Rodriguez, the Yankees slugger, and Gonzalez, a standout pitcher for the Washington Nationals, both issued statements denying they had been patients at the clinic.

Anthony Bosch, the operator of the clinic, known as Biogenesis of America, also issued a statement of denial through his lawyer, saying the Miami New Times article was “filled with inaccuracies, innuendos and misstatements in fact.”

“Mr. Bosch vehemently denies the assertions that MLB players such as Alex Rodriguez and Gio Gonzalez were treated or associated with him,” the statement added.

But despite the denials, Major League Baseball, long suspicious of the clinic’s actions, will continue to proceed in the belief that the assertions in the article have merit. They have been particularly curious about Rodriguez, who admitted in 2009 that he used performance enhancers from 2001 to 2003, but who has denied in several meetings with baseball’s investigators that he has done so since. But what exactly baseball can do about Rodriguez, or any of the other players named, is unclear.

Because the potential evidence does not involve actual failed drug tests, baseball is back where it has been in the past, seeking to perhaps punish players without having the necessary evidence to do so. In the case of the Biogenesis clinic, baseball’s investigators did travel to Florida to meet with members of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, who were taking a close look at the facility.

But whether federal authorities would share with baseball any evidence they develop on the clinic is unclear. In other instances over the last decade, that has not occurred.

“If the feds are not going to prosecute this case it would be much better for us for them to give us some usable evidence like the documents so we can do our job and suspend the players,” said one baseball official. “We could be in discipline hell if that doesn’t happen.”

That official knows that baseball has had little success in suspending players for violating the drug testing program when the players have not actually tested positive. Of the roughly 40 players who have been suspended for violating the testing program since 2005, only a handful have been suspended based on evidence developed by baseball’s investigators or from medical records or court documents.

The most high profile instance of a suspension without a drug test occurred in 2005 when the relief pitcher Jason Grimsley was barred for 50 games after federal authorities unsealed court documents that showed that Grimsley admitted to a federal agent that he had used human growth hormone.

As for the Florida clinic, it has been on the radar of both baseball and federal government since at least 2009, when investigators uncovered evidence that the slugger Manny Ramirez had received a banned drug from the facility. Ramirez was ultimately suspended 50 games for that infraction.

Last summer, baseball’s investigators began to take another look at the clinic after Cabrera, then leading the National League in hitting as the left fielder for the San Francisco Giants, tested positive for elevated testosterone. In the course of that positive test, two people in baseball said, baseball’s investigators uncovered evidence that an employee for Cabrera’s agents, Sam and Seth Levinson, had hatched a cover-up scheme to deceive a baseball arbitrator and have the suspension for the positive drug test thrown out.

Angered, baseball officials began investigating the employee, Juan Nunez, and the Levinsons.

Steve Eder and Alain Delaquérière contributed reporting from New York, and Lizette Alvarez from Miami.

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