Costner delivers poignant eulogy for co-star Houston

(CNN) -- A blockbuster movie could not have been scripted better: a woman whose unparalleled voice earned her the kind of single-name recognition that felt like an unbearable burden.

Fitting, then, that superstar Kevin Costner should eulogize his co-star in this way.

At Whitney Houston's funeral Saturday, Costner recalled a woman who doubted herself when she need not have.

He revealed how Houston was chosen to star with him in the 1992 movie "the Bodyguard." Few had confidence in Houston -- she had never acted before. A lot was riding on this role, he said, and the studio was unsure about giving it to a black woman.

But Costner thought she was perfect, though she would have to prove it to the studio with a screen test. In her trailer, he took her nervous hands in his; told her she looked beautiful.

"I could still feel the doubt," he said.

She asked for some time and after 20 minutes appeared for the screen test.

"We hadn't said four lines when we had to stop," Costner recalled. "I needed to know what she had done in those 20 minutes."

He stood her in front of a mirror, her makeup running down her face.

In those 20 minutes, she had wiped off the studio makeup and applied her own, the thick heavy kind she wore for her music videos, the kind that melted under the heat of studio lights.

She didn't think the lighter makeup made her look good enough. To Costner, Houston seemed so small and sad at that moment.

"You weren't just pretty. You were as beautiful as a woman could be," Costner said in front of a packed Newark church.

"Whitney, if you could hear me now, I would tell you: You weren't just good enough. You were great. You sang the whole damn song without a band."

Costner, of course, was referring to Houston's signature song: "I Will Always Love You" from "The Bodyguard."

"A lot of leading men could have played my part, but you, Whitney, I truly believe, you were the only one who could have played Rachel Marin."

For her closest friends inside that church Saturday, and strangers who continue to draw inspiration from her voice, Costner's words hit a painfully honest note about human frailty.

"It was the burden that made her great and the part that caused her to stumble again," he said.

Years after "The Bodyguard" hit theaters, reports of Houston's struggles with drug addiction and a rocky marriage with Bobby Brown surfaced and her album sales declined.

"The inexplicable burden that comes with fame," Costner said. "Call it doubt. Call it fear. I've had mine. I know the famous in the room have had theirs."

Costner said Houston's own story could help a new generation of young girls who dream big.

"Maybe they're thinking they aren't good enough," he said. "I think Whitney would tell you: Guard your bodies. Guard the precious miracle of your life. Then sing your hearts out, knowing that there's a lady in heaven who's making God himself wonder how he created something so perfect.

"So off you go, Whitney. Off you go," Costner said in closing.

"Escorted by an army of angels to your heavenly father. And when you sing before him, don't you worry. You'll be good enough."

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Game Recap

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Gary Neal hit key 3-pointers in regulation and overtime, Tony Parker scored 30 points and the San Antonio Spurs held off the Los Angeles Clippers 103-100 on Saturday to earn their NBA-leading 10th consecutive victory.

Neal was one of six Spurs in double figures with 17 points. He stole the ball and hit the tying 3-pointer with 5.7 seconds left in regulation. His 3 with 25 seconds to go in overtime snapped a 98-all tie.

Matt Bonner added 13 points, Tim Duncan had 11 points and 17 rebounds, Danny Green had 11, for the Spurs, who improved to 6-0 on their annual rodeo trip that includes nine games.

Blake Griffin had 22 points and 20 rebounds, and Chris Paul and Randy Foye scored 21 points for the Clippers.

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New York Times reporter dies in Syria

(CNN) -- Anthony Shadid, who won two Pulitzer Prizes for his reporting from Iraq, died Thursday while reporting in eastern Syria, apparently of an asthma attack, The New York Times said.

He was 43.

Tyler Hicks, a Times photographer who was with Shadid, carried his body over the border to Turkey.

Hicks said Shadid, who was carrying medication for his asthma, displayed symptoms Thursday morning, when they joined guides on horseback for the trip out of the country. The animals may have triggered the asthma, Hicks said.

He had suffered an asthma attack the week before, when they entered the country and met with guides on horseback, Hicks told The Times.

The Syrian government, which limits international journalists' access to the country, had not been told by The Times that Shadid was there, the newspaper said. He had been inside Syria for a week collecting information for a story on the Syrian resistance, it added.

Shadid, who was fluent in Arabic, had covered the Middle East for nearly 20 years as a reporter for The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Associated Press.

"I was afraid of bullets and bombs before and to find out that he died of an asthma attack was a shock," Shadid's father, Buddy, told CNN. "The world lost an amazing journalist and I lost a beloved son."

"Anthony Shadid was one of the finest and most courageous journalists of our time," said Mark Whitaker, executive vice president and managing editor of CNN Worldwide, who worked at the Washington Post with Shadid before the late journalist went to The New York Times. "All of us at CNN mourn his loss and grieve for his colleagues and loved ones."

Shadid had been working on a book about his family's ancestral home in Lebanon. He traveled there after years of covering conflict to rebuild his grandmother's home, according to his website. "He found a story of hope, healing, but perhaps most powerfully, loss, in a Middle East whose future rests in understanding its past," it said. The book, "House of Stone," is to be published next month by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

He wrote two other books, "Legacy of the Prophet: Despots, Democrats and the New Politics of Islam" and "Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she was a follower of Shadid's work.

"I also want to extend on behalf of myself and our government our sympathies to the family of Anthony Shadid and to The New York Times for his untimely death," she said. "He was somebody I always turned to and read very carefully ... he had his pulse on what was happening."

In an interview last December on NPR's "Fresh Air," Shadid recalled entering without a visa the Syria ruled by President Bashar al-Assad.

Anthony Shadid: A reporter's storyteller

"I've done things that maybe I wouldn't have done in hindsight, and this maybe would have been one of them," he said. "It was scarier than I thought it would be. I had had a bad experience in Libya earlier in the year, [but] I did feel that Syria was so important, and that story wouldn't be told otherwise, that it was worth taking risks for. But the repercussions of getting caught were pretty dire."

After several days in Hama, he crossed safely back across the border.

"I don't think I'd ever seen something like what I saw in Syria," he said. "You're dealing with a government that's shown very little restraint in killing its own people to put down an uprising. ... And I got to spend a lot of time with [the activists] because I spent a lot of time in safe houses. And it reminded me of an old story in Islamic history, when the Muslim armies are crossing to Gibraltar. And the general who was leading them burned the ships after they crossed into Spain. And the idea was there was no turning back. And that story, I felt, resonated [with] almost every conversation I had."

He did not always emerge unhurt from his reporting. In 2002, while working for The Boston Globe, he was shot in the shoulder in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Last year, Shadid and Hicks and two other Times journalists, Stephen Farrell and Lynsey Addario, were arrested by pro-government militias in Libya and held for almost a week, during which all were physically abused. Their driver, Mohammad Shaglouf, died.

In its 2004 citation, the Pulitzer Board praised "his extraordinary ability to capture, at personal peril, the voices and emotions of Iraqis as their country was invaded, their leader toppled and their way of life upended." In 2010, the board praised "his rich, beautifully written series on Iraq as the United States departs and its people and leaders struggle to deal with the legacy of war and to shape the nation's future."

His last story for The Times, on Libya, ran on February 9. At 1,600 words, it was long, which was typical for him, the newspaper said. "It was splashed on the front page of the newspaper and the home page of the Web site, nytimes.com, which was also typical," it said.

Overheard on CNN.com: Remembering Shadid

"Anthony died as he lived determined to bear witness to the transformation sweeping the Middle East and to testify to the suffering of people caught between government oppression and opposition forces," wrote Jill Abramson, executive editor of the Times, in an email to the newspaper's staff.

Survivors include his wife and two children, his parents, a brother and a sister.

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Hands on with the new PS Vita

(CNN) -- Sony's PlayStation Vita, which hits stores in the U.S. and Europe next Wednesday, is much more than just another portable gaming device.

With the Vita, Sony is trying to combine the power of its PlayStation home console with the interface, portability and social media features of a smartphone. With its innovative touch controls, OLED screen, motion sensors, social apps, GPS capability and dual cameras, it has most of the bells and whistles that today's gamers could want.

Some industry observers question whether gamers will spring $250-$300 for another portable gaming device -- plus potential monthly fees for a 3G data plan -- when smartphones already handle many of the same gaming functions. But Sony is counting on the Vita's appeal to hard-core action- and first-person shooter gamers who want a designated mobile gaming system, not just another gadget on which to play "Angry Birds."

CNN spent a week testing out the Vita on a handful of games. Our verdict: It's a powerful and promising device -- better suited to some games than to others -- whose ultimate success will depend on whether developers make enough worthy games for it.

A social device

The successor to the Sony PSP hand-held console, PS Vita was started three years ago at the Sony Corporate Design Center by a team led by Takashi Sogabe, who designed the original Walkman. The goal was to bring richer and better gaming enjoyment than was available with the PSP.

While members of the development team knew they'd be making upgrades to the hardware and gameplay, Shuhei Yoshida, president of SCE Worldwide Studios, said he knew social media capability was going to be just as important.

"It has Twitter. It has Flickr. Portable music applications. These are here to enhance your gameplay experience," Yoshida told CNN. "What (Twitter) does as a player is, it lets you take a screen shot of a game you are playing. You beat the boss or you get the high score, (and) you can show the world what you've done with that screen shot."

Other social media applications, like Facebook, Foursquare and Skype, will also be available for download.

The processing power in the Vita allows for eight different applications to run simultaneously. During our hands-on experience, we could download a new game while playing another and listening to music from the media player. There was no detectible slowing of the action or the music.

PS Vita also raises the bar on mobile gaming by offering voice chat and text chat through the Party application. Party isn't tied into specific games, but allows players to communicate with their friends no matter what each person is doing.

However, AT&T, the exclusive broadband provider for the Vita in the U.S., does impose some restrictions. Yoshida said voice chat will only work if one person is on a Wi-Fi connection and the other is on a 3G connection. As he reminded us, the Vita isn't a phone.

Don't have many PlayStation friends online? Vita can help you find new connections with Near, a program that uses GPS to search your area for other nearby Vita devices. You can see what other people are playing, maybe join up for a multiplayer match or challenge a friend to top your high score. If you're concerned about privacy, there are ways to block your location, yet still see what's going on around you.

Other features

All these additions to the gaming experience mean little if the core gameplay is lacking. And that's where the Vita really delivers. The seven-inch device is chock full of processing power, multiple controls and a 5-inch OLED (organic light-emitting diode) screen, all designed to make games look and play as well as they do on a PlayStation home console.

The front of the Vita has two analog joysticks, a first for a portable gaming device, as well as a directional pad and four buttons. The front screen is also a touchscreen, allowing for direct control during a game.

The back of the device is a touchpad, which can create some unintended gaming consequences when gripping the Vita. Because Sony wanted the back screen to have a one-to-one relationship with the game action, the rear touchpad takes up the same amount of room as the front screen. But it takes some creative holding of the device to play some games without accidentally tapping on the back.

Yoshida said that while Vita does have a lot of input devices and functions, there were many others that didn't make it to the final design. He said the team focused on three things for the Vita: the size of the device, the price and its battery life.

"A certain group of us wanted a stylus," he said, laughing, about one feature that didn't make the cut.

There are also two cameras, front and back, that are designed more for augmented reality (AR) gameplay than for taking quality pictures of your vacation spots. Three games that take advantage of augmented reality -- using a camera to overlay real-world objects onto a device's digital screen -- will be available at launch next week.

Games

To consumers, all these features won't mean much if there aren't good games to play. Available at launch will be 25 titles, with many others scheduled for release shortly after.

Sony is counting on some big franchises to help the Vita make a splash in the U.S. "Assassin's Creed," "Madden NFL," "Uncharted," "FIFA," "Little Big Planet" and "BioShock" are a few of the powerhouse series that are developing games for the Vita. Some are available now, and others are coming soon.

Sony also is making some original games, mainly shooters and action-adventure titles, available at launch.

At a recent demo in Washington, the new "MLB 12: The Show" showed how gamers can use the Vita's rear touchpad to throw the ball around a baseball diamond. Designer Ramone Russell said the PS3 version of the game will have 70 new enhancements and Vita will have 65 of those as well.

He explained that the PS3 version and the Vita version of the game were designed with cross-play between the two consoles in mind.

"You dump 20, 30, 40 hours into a mode, and it's time to go on a business trip," Russell said. "You save that file up into a Cloud. Pick up your PlayStation Vita. Take it on the road. Download it from the Cloud and you keep going. And it works vice versa."

After about a week of hands-on experience, the PS Vita feels less like a mobile gaming device and more like a new gaming console that is also portable. The social features and functionality are exciting, and their integration into games seems smooth.

It takes a period of adjustment to avoid tapping the backside touchpad at the wrong time during a game. Even using the front touchscreen requires a bit of juggling, but it isn't anything that gets frustrating or awkward.

Overall, the Vita's power, social integration and presentation make the device worth a look. But the lingering question is whether developers will create enough great Vita games to make it worth the money.

The Wi-Fi version of the PS Vita will cost $249, while the AT&T 3G version will sell for $299 (plus a data plan). Two monthly data plans are available through AT&T: 250MB for $15 and 3GB for $30. There's also a first-edition bundle package that includes a PS Vita 3G/Wi-Fi model, 4GB memory card, "Little Deviants" game and a limited-edition case for $350. The deal expires at the end of March. Memory cards are needed for some Vita games, but not for all.

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Apple vows to improve conditions at China plants

San Francisco (CNN) -- Apple CEO Tim Cook on Tuesday said that the world's most valuable tech company is doing everything it can to address growing concerns over working conditions at its Chinese manufacturing plants.

"We know people have a very high expectation of Apple," he told hundreds of investment professionals at the annual Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco. "No one in our industry is doing more to improve working conditions than Apple."

Cook's comments came one day after the announcement that an independent watchdog group, the Fair Labor Association, has begun auditing conditions at plants in China that make most of Apple's products, including iPhones and iPads.

Cook called it "probably the most detailed factory audit in the history of mass manufacturing." Apple is taking the "unprecedented step" of recording the results monthly on its website, he said.

Abuses at Chinese plants run by manufacturer Foxconn have gained recent attention amid news reports of long working hours, underage workers and a secretive, militaristic culture. The news has become a rare public relations problem for the computer giant.

But Apple's chief sounded defiant on Tuesday.

"We think the use of underaged labor is abhorrent. It's extremely rare in our supply chain, but our top priority is to eliminate it totally. We've done that with our final assembly and we're now working with vendors farther down in the supply chain. If we find a supplier that intentionally hires underage labor, it's a firing offense," he told the audience.

Cook conceded there have been widespread violations of the number of hours employees should be allowed to work. He said the Apple's code of conduct allows for no more than 60 hours a week -- 20 more hours than a typical week for American workers.

"We're determined to drive widespread change," he said.

Appearing on stage with Goldman Sachs hardware analyst Bill Shope, the 51-year-old Apple CEO fielded questions on a range of topics.

When the subject turned to Apple's $98 billion in cash, Cook said the company's board of directors is in "active discussions" on what to do with it.

"I think it's clear to everyone we have more cash than we need to run the business," he said.

Still, Cook gave no indication on whether Apple would begin issuing dividends to shareholders, something the company has long avoided.

Cook also declined to go into detail about speculation on whether the company intends on entering the TV business. But he spoke enthusiastically about the company's $99 dollar set-top box, which the company labels "a hobby."

"It's clearly ramping [up]," he said, noting that Apple increased its sales to 3 million units last year. Still, that number pales in comparison to other Apple products. The company sold 37 million IPhones last quarter alone.

"We've always thought there was something there [in TV]," he said.

As for tablets, Cook bristled at the suggestion that lower prices from its competitors could hurt its business. Amazon's popular tablet, the Kindle Fire, for example, sells for $199 compared with $399 for the iPad.

"Price is rarely the most important thing," he said. "A cheap product might sell some units. Then they get home and use it and the joy is gone."

Cook ended the 45-minute session by talking about the philosophy driven by his predecessor, Steve Jobs, who died in October.

"Steve drilled in all of us over many years that the company should revolve around a few great products, " he said. "Don't think about how great things were yesterday."

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FDA warns of counterfeit cancer drug

Washington (CNN) -- A counterfeit version of the anti-cancer drug Avastin may have been purchased and used in a number of medical facilities in the United States, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned Wednesday.

The FDA sent letters to 19 medical practices known to have purchased unapproved cancer medications, according to the agency.

The counterfeit version of Avastin lacks the medicine's key ingredient, bevacizumab.

Roche, the pharmaceutical company that manufactures Avastin, conducted laboratory tests confirming the presence of the counterfeit version, the FDA noted.

"The counterfeit product is not safe or effective and should not be used," Roche member company Genentech said in a written statement. Genentech is responsible for marketing Avastin.

The unapproved cancer medications -- potentially including the counterfeit version of Avastin -- were purchased from a foreign supplier known as Quality Specialty Products, which may also be known as Montana Health Care Solutions, according to the FDA

"It sounds like the key issue with that ... is that the counterfeit vials don't have Genentech labels on them," said Donald Harvey, president of the Hematology and Oncology Pharmacists Association. "Pharmacists have to take a look and really investigate their supply."

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Holder gets extra time on 'Fast and Furious'

Washington (CNN) -- A key congressional Republican who had threatened to bring a contempt citation against Attorney General Eric Holder if he did not comply with a demand for "Operation Fast and Furious" documents by 5 p.m. Thursday, has backed off his stated deadline.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-California, who has the backing of the committee's Republican majority, has granted a Justice Department request for an extension. No new deadline was set.

The Justice Department did not dispute the committee statement.

An aide to Issa said the congressman was satisfied that Holder had shown some flexibility on the documents issue in his testimony before the committee a week earlier. However, the aide added, "They won't have forever."

Deputy Attorney General James Cole had informed the committee in a letter last week that it would be "impossible" to comply with the document request by Issa's deadline.

At issue are thousands of pages of internal Justice Department and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) documents from last year which the Justice Department has provided to the investigating Justice Inspector General, but which the Justice Department initially indicated are not subject to congressional review because of the constitutional separation of powers.

The House committee has led a high-profile investigation into the gun probe run by federal agents in Arizona. It was one of several Phoenix-based operations intended to track the flow of illegally purchased American guns to the Mexican cartels -- but in practice, agents from ATF allowed so-called straw buyers to take weapons across the border without being intercepted.

The documents are believed to focus on internal communications as administration officials and senior law enforcement officials sought to explain the origins, and subsequent handling, of the operation.

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