Obama’s national security adviser bows out

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama’s national security advisor James Jones is retiring and will be replaced by hard-charging deputy Tom Donilon, in a new shake-up of key White House staff portfolios.

The decision by Jones, which had been expected, comes at a time of rising US challenges abroad, including heightened terror threats and Iran’s nuclear defiance, and was revealed just a month before Obama’s major tour of Asia.

Jones will become the first high-profile member of Obama’s foreign and national security brain trust to leave, following the departures of several top-level economic advisers.