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Obama hosts Super Bowl party at White House WASHINGTON, Feb 7 (Reuters) With Washington blanketed by snow, US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle were spending Sunday at the White House hosting a Super Bowl party.
Democratic Senator Chris Dodd, Republican Congressman Joseph Cao and Democratic Senator Baron Hill were among the lawmakers invited to watch the telecast of the National Football League championship game from Miami.
Cabinet members on the guest list included Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Attorney General Eric Holder. Service members from Iraq and Afghanistan were also invited.
Obama is partial to the New Orleans Saints, he told ABC on January 25, partly because of the devastation the city suffered in Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
The Indianapolis Colts are expected to beat the Saints in Sunday evening's game, which will be watched by an estimated 100 million people. But the Saints, playing in their first Super Bowl, are the emotional favorite for many fans.
''I guess I'm rooting a little bit for the Saints as the underdog partly just because when I think of what's happened in New Orleans over the last several years and how much that team means to them,'' Obama said.
US anti-terrorism adviser lashes out at lawmakers WASHINGTON, Feb 7 (Reuters) President Barack Obama's top counterterrorism adviser today lashed out at US lawmakers, accusing them of using national security issues as a ''political football'' for their own gains.
Republicans have accused the Obama administration of mistakes in the handling of the arrest of Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, for trying to blow up a Detroit-bound plan on Christmas Day.
''Quite frankly I'm tiring of politicians using national security issues such as terrorism as political football.
They're going out there, they're unknowing of the facts, and they're making charges and allegations that are not anchored in reality,'' John Brennan told NBC's ''Meet the Press.'' By charging Abdulmutallab in a criminal court and giving him legal rights, Republicans have argued that it prevented the intelligence community from obtaining information from him on al Qaeda and possible future US terrorist attacks.
Brennan revealed that he briefed Republican lawmakers, including Senator Christopher Bond, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, soon after the arrest on the handling of the suspect and they did not raise any concerns.
''They were told about the fact of that cooperation as well as some information he was sharing,'' Brennan said. ''None of those individuals raised any concerns with me at that point.
They didn't say, is he going into military custody? Is he going to be Mirandized?'' In a statement, Bond said if Brennan had told him of plans to read the suspect his legal rights, commonly called Miranda rights in the United States, he would have told him it was a mistake.
''The truth is that the administration did not even consult our intelligence chiefs ... so its absurd to try to blame congressional leaders for this dangerous decision that gave terrorists a five-week head start to cover their tracks,'' he said.
Brennan said he would not compromise investigations by revealing sensitive intelligence information.
''There have been instances where information is shared with the Hill and we see it in the paper the next day,'' Brennan said, adding that FBI officials had appropriately handled the arrest.
''Those counterterrorism professionals deserve the support of our Congress and, rather than second guessing what they are doing on the ground...,'' he said.
Scientists find gene variant link to ageing cells LONDON, Feb 7 (Reuters) Scientists have found specific genetic variants which may explain why some people age earlier than others and say their findings have important implications for understanding cancer and age-related diseases.
Dutch and British researchers analysed more than 500,000 genetic variations from human gene maps and found that people with particular variants near a gene called TERC were likely to be biologically older by 3 to 4 years.
''What our study suggests is that some people are genetically programmed to age at a faster rate. The effect was quite considerable in those with the variant,'' said Tim Spector from King's College London, who co-led the study.
In a study published in the Nature Genetics journal, the scientists explained that there are two forms of ageing -- chronological ageing, counted in years, and biological ageing, in which the cells of some people are older, or younger, than their chronological age.
''There is accumulating evidence that the risk of age-associated diseases including heart disease and some types of cancers are more closely related to biological rather than chronological age,'' said Nilesh Samani, a cardiology professor at Britain's Leicester University, who worked on the study.
The researchers studied structures called telomeres -- protective caps on the ends of chromosomes whose length is associated with cell ageing.
Fraying or shortening of telomeres can lead to premature ageing and cancer, a finding that helped win the 2009 Nobel Prize for Medicine for three American scientists who discovered an enzyme, telmorase, that helps prevent such fraying.
Scientists have known for some time that the TERC gene, which regulates the length of telomeres, plays a key role in ageing and cancer, but Spector said the importance of this study was that it identified particular variants of it in humans that suggest earlier ageing is more likely.
''We have known about telomeres for a long time, but finding a common variant in humans that changes them is an important step,'' he said in a telephone interview.
People carrying a particular variant of the gene had shorter telomeres, and appeared biologically older, the scientists said.
''Given the association of shorter telomeres with age-associated diseases, the finding raises the question whether individuals carrying the variant are at greater risk of developing such diseases,'' said Samani.
Large explosion reported at power plant in Connecticut WASHINGTON, Feb 7 (Reuters) A gas line exploded today at a power plant in Middletown, Connecticut and local media reported dozens of casualties.
The Middletown Press said the explosion was at the Kleen Energy plant. Middletown is 23 miles (37 km) south of the city of Hartford. The newspaper said on website ambulances and a helicopter were on the scene.
The explosion was felt in neighboring towns and black smoke was visible for miles (km) around.
A plant official told a local NBC TV station the facility was a 620 megawatt gas-fired power plant.
Yanukovich wins Ukraine election-exit polls KIEV, Feb 7 (Reuters) Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yanukovich won presidential elections today, according to exit polls, but rival Yulia Tymoshenko refused to concede, in remarks which could presage a court challenge.
Yanukovich, 59, a beefy ex-mechanic who wants better ties with Moscow, staged a remarkable comeback from a former election disgrace to lead Sunday's runoff vote with 49.8 per cent, according to pollsters ICTV.
Former gas tycoon and serving premier Tymoshenko, 49, who led crowds onto the streets in 2004 to strip Yanukovich of victory after a fraudulent election, trailed with 45.2 per cent.
Legal challenges and street protests from Tymoshenko could further delay Ukraine's chances of repaying over 100 billion dollar of foreign debt and nursing its sickly economy back to health after a 15 per cent collapse last year.
Two further exit polls pointed to Yanukovich winning but a stern-looking Tymoshenko was in no mood to give up and said that her team was conducting a ''parallel count''.
''It is too early to draw conclusions,'' Tymoshenko told a news conference. ''Everything will depend on how our team defends the results. I ask everyone to fight for every result, every document, every vote, because a vote can decide our fate.'' The exit poll results were greeted with applause at Yanukovich's campaign headquarters. ''This means absolute victory for Viktor Yanukovich,'' aide Anna German told Reuters. ''That leaves Tymoshenko with no chance''.
The polls came after voting ended in snowy, sub-zero temperatures in this country of 46 million. Official results were expected during Sunday night.
ORANGE REVOLUTION Yesterday's vote appeared to reflect a widespread feeling among Ukrainians that the Orange Revolution, which Tymoshenko co-led, failed to deliver prosperity or stability and instead led to constant political squabbling and deep economic crisis.
President Viktor Yushchenko, the other leader of the Orange Revolution, was eliminated from voting in the first round of the election after coming a humiliating fifth. He lauched a series of bitter personal attacks on his former ally Tymoshenko.
Voters were unenthusiastic about either candidate but seemed to feel Yanukovich, a former premier who stressed the fight against poverty, had the best chance of restoring order.
''We lost five years of our lives thanks to Yushchenko and Tymoshenko,'' said Oleg Nochvyn, a miner in his 50s in the eastern region of Donetsk.
''For five years they were promising us -- tomorrow will be better. Well, I get up the next day and it's worse than the day before ... Under Viktor Fyodorovich (Yanukovich) we had everything -- economic growth, everything was getting better.'' The economy has been battered by a decline in the value of Ukraine's steel and chemicals exports that has hammered the hryvnia currency, slashed budget revenues and undermined the domestic banking system.
Regardless of the outcome of today's election, squabbling and intrigue were set to continue.
Before polls closed, Tymoshenko's camp said it would contest results in around 1,000 polling stations in the eastern Donetsk region, the industrial power base of Yanukovich.
Deputy Prime Minister Oleksander Turchynov, Tymoshenko's campaign chief, complained of multiple voting and bribery.
Volodymyr Mayevsky, head of the Interior Ministry's public security department, told a news conference that voting ''got underway smoothly, without blatant violations of public order'' but Tymoshenko's team took a different view.
Investors want a new president who will be able to resume borrowing from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF put lending on hold in frustration at political squabbling and concerns about budget spending.
The 2010 budget has still not been approved and the country has had no confirmed finance minister since February 2009, when veteran Viktor Pynzenyk resigned saying he could no longer do the job amid the political infighting in Kiev.
Palin Won't ''close the door'' on White House run WASHINGTON, Feb 7 (Reuters) Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said today that she was open to a possible White House run in 2012 but has not made up her mind.
''I think that it would be absurd to not consider what it is that I can potentially do to help our country,'' Palin told Fox News Sunday. ''I won't close the door that perhaps could be open for me in the future.'' The Republican former Alaska governor, who was John McCain's running mate in the 2008 election, said she thought Democratic President Barack Obama would be vulnerable in a re-election fight in 2-1/2 years if he continues to pursue his current agenda.
Palin rallied conservatives yesterday night at the Nashville, Tennessee convention of the national ''Tea Party'' movement. The Tea Party group hopes to have an impact on the November congressional races in which Democrats, who hold a majority in both houses of Congress, are at risk of seeing an erosion of their dominance.
In her speech, Palin hammered Obama on the rising US debt and on national security issues.
Palin was recently hired by Fox News as a commentator. She has assembled a group of advisers -- some of whom are former aides to the McCain campaign -- who email her briefings each morning on domestic and foreign policy issues.
'Avatar' dethroned at box office by 'Dear John' LOS ANGELES, Feb 7 (Reuters) The new romantic drama ''Dear John'' unexpectedly ended the seven-week reign of ''Avatar'' at the weekend box office in North America today, pulling in large numbers of young female moviegoers.
''Dear John'' grossed an estimated $32.4 million in the three-day period since opening Friday, said distributor Screen Gems, the low-budget division of Sony Corp.
It had hoped for an opening of about $20 million on a weekend when many Americans forsake movies to watch the Super Bowl, traditionally the year's most-watched television broadcast. The football championship starts around 6:25 pm (2325 GMT) in Miami.
''Dear John'' stars Channing Tatum and Amanda Siegfried as lovers whose romance is curtailed by the Sept. 11 attacks. It is directed by Swedish filmmaker Lasse Hallstrom and based on ''The Notebook,'' a novel by Nicholas Sparks.
Audiences for the film were 84 percent female and two-thirds were under the age of 21, Sony said.
The last romantic comedy to hit theaters was the widely panned ''Leap Year'' about a month ago. ''The Lovely Bones,'' another box office disappointment, also has made a play for young women after failing to get any traction during the annual movie awards season.
''Avatar'' earned $23.6 million in its eighth weekend, taking its total to $630.1 million. James Cameron's sci-fi blockbuster surpassed the $601 million haul of his 1997 release ''Titanic'' last Tuesday to become the biggest movie of all time in the United States and Canada.
The data are not adjusted for ticket-price inflation or for the higher cost of 3D engagements. The film was released by 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp.
TRAVOLTA TRIPS John Travolta's latest box office offering, ''From Paris With Love,'' was the actor's worst start in almost a decade. The crime thriller opened at No 3 with $8.1 million, falling short of modest industry expectations.
Travolta's previous worst opening was the $4.5 million start for ''Lucky Numbers'' in October 2000. Travolta was in theaters last November with ''Old Dogs,'' which opened at ticket sales of $17 million.
''From Paris With Love'' was distributed by Lionsgate, a unit of Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. French filmmaker Pierre Morel directed it.
Many critics ripped both new releases.
Also new to the top 10 was ''Crazy Heart,'' which expanded nationally after seven weekends in limited release on the heels of its three Oscar nominations on Tuesday.
The picture earned $3.65 million, jumping six places to No.
8. Jeff Bridges, its star, is considered the favorite to take home the best actor Oscar on March 7 for his role as a washed-up country music singer and songwriter. It was released by Fox Searchlight, the art-house unit of 20th Century Fox.
''Avatar'' and ''The Hurt Locker,'' now out on DVD, led the Oscar field with nine nominations each.
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