The move is the first in an expected overhaul of Obama's national security team heading into his second term.

As the nation's top diplomat, Kerry will not only be tasked with executing the president's foreign policy objectives, but will also have a hand in shaping them. The longtime lawmaker has been in lockstep with Obama on issues like nuclear non-proliferation, but ahead of the White House in advocating aggressive policies in Libya, Egypt and elsewhere that the president later embraced.

"He is not going to need a lot of on-the-job training," Obama said, standing alongside Kerry in a Roosevelt Room ceremony. "Few individuals know as many presidents and prime ministers or grasp our foreign policies as firmly as John Kerry."

He is expected to win confirmation easily in the Senate, where he has served since 1985, the last six years as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.

Kerry would take the helm at the State Department from Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has long planned to leave the administration early next year. Clinton is recovering from a concussion sustained in a fall and did not attend the White House event.

In a statement, Clinton said, "John Kerry has been tested in war, in government, and in diplomacy. Time and again, he has proven his mettle."

Obama settled on Kerry for the job even though it could cause a political problem for Democrats in Massachusetts. Kerry's move to State would open the Senate seat he has held for five terms, giving Republicans an opportunity to take advantage. Recently defeated GOP Sen. Scott Brown would be his party's clear favorite in a special election.

Kerry would join a national security team in flux, with Obama expected to choose a new defense secretary and director of the Central Intelligence Agency in the coming weeks.

The 69-year-old Kerry already has deep relationships with many world leaders, formed both during his Senate travels and as an unofficial envoy for Obama. The president has called upon Kerry in particular to diffuse diplomatic disputes in Afghanistan and Pakistan, two countries that will be at the forefront of Obama's foreign policy agenda early in his second term.

At times, Kerry has been more forward-leaning than Obama on foreign policy issues. He was an early advocate of an international "no-fly zone" over Libya in 2011 and among the first U.S. lawmakers to call for Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak to leave power as pro-democracy protests grew. Obama later backed both positions.

Kerry would take over at a State Department grappling with the deaths of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans during a September attack on the consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Kerry, during a hearing on the attacks Thursday, hinted at how he would manage U.S. diplomatic personnel working in unstable regions.

"There will always be a tension between the diplomatic imperative to get 'outside the wire' and the security standards that require our diplomats to work behind high walls," he said. "Our challenge is to strike a balance between the necessity of the mission, available resources and tolerance for risk."

His only other rival for the job, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, faced harsh criticism from congressional Republicans for her initial accounting of the consulate attack. Obama vigorously defended Rice, a close friend and longtime adviser, but GOP senators dug in, threatening to hold up her nomination if the president tapped her for the post.

Rice withdrew her name from consideration last week, making Kerry all but certain to become the nominee. People familiar with the White House's decision-making said support within the administration was moving toward Kerry even before Rice pulled out.

The son of a diplomat, Kerry was first elected to the Senate in 1984. He is also a decorated Vietnam veteran who was critical of the war effort when he returned to the U.S. He ran for president in 2004, losing a close race to incumbent Republican President George W. Bush.

Obama and Kerry have developed close ties in recent years. It was Kerry, during his 2004 presidential run, who tapped Obama as the party's convention keynote speaker, a role that thrust the little-known Illinois politician into national prominence.

Kerry served on Obama's debate preparation team during the 2012 election, playing Republican challenger Mitt Romney in mock debates.

"Nothing brings two people closer together than two weeks of debate prep," Obama joked on Friday. "John, I'm looking forward to working with you rather than debating you."

Kerry is Obama's first Cabinet appointee following the November election. The president is also mulling replacements for retiring Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and former CIA director David Petraeus, who resigned last month after admitting to an affair with his biographer.

Former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska is a front-runner for the Pentagon post, but has been dogged by questions about his support for Israel and where he stands on gay rights, with critics calling on him to repudiate a comment in 1998 that a former ambassadorial nominee was "openly, aggressively gay."

Hagel apologized for that comment Friday.

Former Pentagon official Michele Flournoy and current Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter are also under consideration to replace Panetta. Obama is also considering promoting acting CIA Director Michael Morell or naming White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan as the nation's spy chief.

___

Associated Press writers Donna Cassata in Washington and Steve LeBlanc in Boston contributed to this report.

___

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

Zynga shares rose about 3 percent to $2.30 in premarket trading, while Synacor shares were up about 5 percent at $6.60.

Synacor said certain pay-TV subscribers will get in-game currency each month as part of their subscription that can be redeemed for popular Zynga games such as Zynga Poker and FarmVille2.

The partnership comes days after Zynga revised its pact with Facebook Inc to lower its dependence on the social network.

Synacor, which debuted on the Nasdaq in February, offers authentication and management services to companies offering on-demand content, primarily cable and telecom service providers and consumer electronics brands.

(Reporting by Chandni Doulatramani in Bangalore; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

All the fanfare surrounding the birth of a baby elephant at the Oregon Zoo last week soon turned to peanut-throwing at zoo officials, after it emerged the calf would become the property of an elephant rental company when it turns 30 days old.

Looking to quell worry, executive director of the Oregon Zoo, Kim Smith, said today the elephant was always intended to remain at the zoo and that they were in talks to negotiate the ownership of the unnamed calf.

"Ownership doesn't really mean anything," Smith said. "It's not something that bares where this animal lives. This animal lives here."

The zoo said it had previously entered into a breeding loan agreement with Have Trunk Will Travel, a group that rents elephants to the entertainment industry. Under the rules of the contract, the 2nd, 4th and 6th offspring of the Have Trunk Will Travel's male elephant, Tusko, would become the property of the group.

The new calf, which was born on Friday, is the second offspring.

Smith said Have Trunk Will Travel has always been committed to keeping the calf at the zoo, where she can bond with her mother, however she stopped short of saying that was guaranteed.

"There has never been a question of where she was going to go, not once, not ever," Smith said of the elephant.

The discovery of the contract, which was first reported by the Seattle Times, prompted outrage among animal lovers.

"It would be very sad if the Portland Zoo gave up the baby elephant especailly [sic] to such a traveling side show! Separating it from her mother is bad enough," Jerry Loos wrote on the zoo's Facebook page.

Another poster, Rachel Davis, said if the claims were true, she would never visit the Oregon Zoo again.

"These regal creatures are among the most intelligent and sentient on the planet! I hope to high heaven that this isn't true," she wrote.

Have Trunk, Will Travel did not immediately return a request for comment.

The ban - imposed on the grounds that circumcision amounted to "bodily harm" - triggered an emotional debate over the treatment of Jews and other religious minorities, a sensitive subject in a country still haunted by its Nazi past.

The outcry prompted Germany's centre-right government and opposition parties to draw up legislation confirming the practice was legal - overruling the decision by a court in the western city of Cologne.

The new law passed by an overwhelming majority in Bundestag lower house said the operation could be carried out, as long as parents were informed about the risks.

Jewish groups welcomed the move.

"This vote and the strong commitment shown ... to protect this most integral practice of the Jewish religion is a strong message to our community for the continuation and flourishing of Jewish life in Germany," said Moshe Kantor, President of the European Jewish Congress.

Germany's Catholic Bishops Conference said it hoped the bill would help safeguard religious freedoms. No comment was immediately available from the country's Central Council of Muslims.

PAIN MINIMISED

The May ruling centered on the case of a Muslim boy who bled after the procedure and the ban only applied to the area around Cologne.

But some doctors in other parts of Germany started refusing to carry out circumcisions, saying it was unclear whether they would face prosecution.

Under the new law, a doctor or trained expert must conduct the operation and children must endure as little pain as possible, which means an anesthetic should be used. The procedure cannot take place if there is any doubt about the child's health.

Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said no other country in the world country had made the religious circumcision of boys an offence.

"In our modern and secular state, it is not the job of the state to interfere in children's' upbringing," she said.

Child welfare group Deutsche Kinderhilfe disagreed, saying the government had "(pushed) through the legalization of the ritual of genital circumcision ... against the advice of child right campaigners and the medical profession."

(Reporting by Madeline Chambers; Edited by Stephen Brown and Andrew Heavens)

Benjamin Netanyahu's tough words were likely to deepen the rift between Israel and some of its closest allies, particularly in Europe, that has emerged since the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly voted in favor of Palestinian independence last month. In a sign of the tense relations, European Union foreign ministers were gathered in Brussels to condemn new settlement construction that Netanyahu has authorized in response to the U.N. decision.

Speaking to foreign reporters, Netanyahu accused the international community of having double standards, condemning not-yet-built settlements in the West Bank while standing quiet during a historic visit to the Gaza Strip by Hamas' exiled leader, Khaled Mashaal.

Making his first trip to the Hamas-ruled territory over the weekend, Mashaal delivered a series of speeches to throngs of supporters vowing to wipe Israel off the map. The visit underscored Hamas' rising clout and regional acceptance since its eight-day conflict with Israel last month.

Netanyahu also directed his ire at Hamas' rival, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, for not speaking out.

"This weekend the leader of Hamas, sitting next to the Hamas leader of Gaza, a man who praised Osama Bin Laden, this weekend openly called for the destruction of Israel. Where was the outrage? Where were the U.N. resolutions? Where was President Abbas?" Netanyahu said.

"Why weren't Palestinian diplomats summoned to European and other capitals to explain why the PA president not only refused to condemn this but actually declared his intention to unite with Hamas. There was nothing, there was silence and it was deafening silence," he added.

Netanyahu has long complained that the world unfairly singles out Israel for criticism. In Monday's address, he accused the United Nations of passing an unbalanced resolution that supported Palestinian independence but did not address Israeli security concerns.

The U.N. resolution recognized a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war. Just eight countries sided with Israel in opposing the vote.

Although it does not end Israel's occupation of the West Bank and east Jerusalem, the resolution gave an international endorsement to the Palestinian position on the borders between Israel and a future Palestine. It also amounted to a broad condemnation of Israeli settlements in the two areas. Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005.

Netanyahu, who rejects a return to Israel's 1967 lines, responded to the U.N. resolution with plans to build thousands of new homes in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. The most contentious plan is to develop a corridor linking east Jerusalem and Maaleh Adumim, one of the largest Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

The Palestinians say this project, known as E1, would deal a death blow to any hopes for peace since it would separate the West Bank from east Jerusalem, their hoped-for capital, and drive a deep wedge between the northern and southern parts of the West Bank by creating a string of settlements jutting nearly halfway across the West Bank.

Israeli officials say construction on the E1 project is years away. But the country has come under fierce criticism by its closest allies, the U.S. and major countries in Western Europe.

Last week, a string of Israeli ambassadors were summoned for official reprimand in European capitals, and on Monday, EU foreign ministers gathered in Brussels to discuss a response to the plan.

Sweden's foreign minister, Carl Bildt, said the Israeli construction plans have caused "extreme concern" in the 27-nation EU. "What the Israelis did on E1 has shifted opinions in Europe," Bildt said as he arrived for the meeting. "I don't think the Israelis are aware of this."

The Palestinians say they turned to the U.N. in frustration after a four-year freeze in peace efforts under Netanyahu. The Palestinians say they will not resume talks unless Netanyahu halts settlement construction and accepts the 1967 lines as the basis for talks.

Netanyahu played down the international criticism and blamed the Palestinians for the impasse. He noted that a 10-month partial settlement freeze he imposed in 2010 had failed to restart negotiations.

"The reason why the Palestinians avoided negotiations for the past four years is a very simple one. They avoided negotiations because they were willing to take concessions from Israel but they were not prepared to make concessions to Israel," he said.

Netanyahu said that negotiations should resume without any conditions, and even held out the possibility of abandoning the E1 plan.

"We remain committed and this is what we prefer, a bilateral negotiation without preconditions in which all these questions can be raised, that is our preference and I hope the Palestinian Authority will go that route because it is better for them and it is better for us," he said.

While Netanyahu's term has been characterized by tensions with Israel's allies, he remains popular at home and appears set to win a new term as head of a hard-line coalition in parliamentary elections next month.

Netanyahu told the audience he had made great gains during his term. He claimed he had helped draw attention to Iran's suspect nuclear program, beefed up Israel's cybersecurity and missile defenses, and fortified Israel's southern border with Egypt to prevent militant attacks and waves of African migrants from entering the country.

Yet in a moment of candor, he signaled that his sometimes rocky relations with President Barack Obama could have been handled better. "Who doesn't have regrets?"

___

Ian Deitch contributed to this report from Jerusalem