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SAC Capital Advisors, has pleaded guilty to wire fraud and securities fraud, agreeing to pay at least $1.2 billion, the largest-ever penalty for insider trading.

The Stamford, Conn.-based hedge fund entered the plea four days after the government announced it had reached a deal with the firm, which is owned by billionaire investor Steven A. Cohen.

Reuters says the agreed upon figure is $1.2 billion, but The Associated Press says it's $1.8 billion.

In July, the firm, one of Wall Street's biggest hedge funds, had initially entered a not guilty plea even though it had agreed in March to pay more than $600 million in penalties related to charges that it participated in an insider trading scheme involving a clinical trial for a new Alzheimer's drug.

Reuters writes:

"U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain said she would refrain from deciding about whether to accept the plea until after she read the pre-sentencing report. She scheduled the sentencing hearing for March 14.

As part of the plea, Nussbaum listed former employees who had been convicted of insider trading charges and described their offenses.

'On behalf of SAC, I want to express our deep remorse for the misconduct of each individual who broke the law while employed at SAC,' he said.

'This happened on our watch, and we are responsible for that misconduct.'"

As a general workplace rule, it's never a good idea to fall asleep on the job. That's especially true if you're a member of Congress.

But Democratic Rep. Mike Honda of California's 17th district nevertheless appears to have been caught twice on camera dozing off in public recently — once at a town hall meeting and another time on the House floor.

Honda is far from the first member of Congress caught napping on the job. And the congressman's communications director has explained Honda was not sleeping in either instance — the 72-year-old often closes his eyes when he's thinking.

Still, the optics could prove problematic for the seven-term congressman, who is in the middle of the toughest battle of his political career.

Honda typically sails to re-election — aside from his first race, he's never earned less than 65 percent of the vote. But in 2014, Honda faces a Democratic primary challenge from a formidable — and considerably younger — foe in 37-year-old Ro Khanna, a former deputy secretary in the Commerce Department under President Obama.

Largely thanks to the support he's received from technology industry leaders — the newly drawn district is now home to the heart of Silicon Valley — Khanna is enjoying an early financial advantage in the race. He raised nearly $1.6 million to Honda's $960,000 and had about three times as much cash on hand at the end of September.

Khanna, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2004, has also brought on several top Obama campaign officials to his team, including 2012 national field director Jeremy Bird.

The Democratic establishment is sticking behind Honda, though. Obama, Vice President Biden, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Steve Israel have all endorsed him.

While Khanna, an Indian-American, is tapping the resources of his allies in Silicon Valley, Honda has deep ties to the Asian-American community, which makes up half of the district's population.

Honda and Khanna will face off in California's June 3 "jungle" primary, where the top two vote-getters will move on to the general election regardless of party affiliation. The district is a Democratic stronghold, and the two are the favorites to advance and go head-to-head again in November.

A Palestinian investigator says Israel is the "only suspect" in the 2004 death of the late Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.

"We consider Israel the first, fundamental and only suspect in Yasser Arafat's assassination," Tawfik Tirawi, head of a Palestinian committee looking into the case, said Friday at a news conference in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

His comments come days after Swiss scientists said they found elevated levels of the radioactive element polonium-210 in Arafat's exhumed remains. As Mark wrote at the time, the scientists said tests "moderately" support the case Arafat was poisoned.

Calling it "the crime of the 21st century," Tirawi dismissed speculation that Arafat died at the hands of rivals within the Palestinian establishment.

Tirawi, who said the investigation would continue, refused to say whether he believed Arafat died from polonium poisoning. And as The Associated Press notes, "he did not present evidence of Israeli involvement, arguing only that Israel had the means and motive to do so. Israel has repeatedly denied it was behind Arafat's death, and did so again Friday, in light of the new allegations."

Israel denied any involvement in Arafat's demise.

"Palestinians should stop leveling all these groundless accusations without the slightest proof because enough is enough," foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told Reuters. "We have strictly nothing to do with this and that is all there is to it."

At the same news conference in Ramallah, the Palestinian medical expert on the investigative team said a separate Russian report on Arafat found there wasn't enough evidence to conclude that he died from polonium poisoning.

"The outcome of the comprehensive report on the levels of polonium-210 and the development of his illness does not give sufficient evidence to support the decision that Polonium-210 caused acute radiation syndrome leading to death," said Dr. Abdullah Bashir, the medical expert, quoting from the report.

Bashir said both the Russian and the Swiss reports did find large amounts of the isotope in Arafat's remains. A team of French scientists has yet to release a report on its findings.

Mark wrote this week:

It was almost a year ago that Arafat's grave was opened in the West Bank city of Ramallah so that samples could be taken. Palestinian officials took the unusual step because Arafat's widow, Suha Arafat, said earlier in 2012 that traces of the radioactive element had been found on clothing that belonged to her husband.

"Expectations are really going up quickly" in Geneva, Switzerland, that negotiators could announce Friday that they've reached a "first-step agreement that contains the first real limits on Iran's nuclear program in nearly a decade," NPR's Peter Kenyon reported on Morning Edition.

Secretary of State John Kerry is joining the diplomats in Geneva — adding a stop at the talks to a trip he's been on — and France's foreign minister may also drop in, Peter reports. Their presence has ramped up speculation about an agreement.