Tag: from the wires
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Iran reform leader says he won’t end his challenge
EDITOR’S NOTE: Iranian authorities have barred journalists for international news organizations from reporting on the streets and ordered them to stay in their offices. This report is based on the accounts of witnesses reached in Iran and official statements carried on Iranian media. ___ Iran’s opposition leader pledged Thursday not to withdraw his election challenge…
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Obama not closing door on possible health care tax
WASHINGTON – With lawmakers trying to crunch the numbers on a $1 trillion health care overhaul, President Barack Obama is leaving the door open to a new tax on employer-provided health care benefits. Senior senators said Wednesday the benefits tax could be essential for the complex plan to be fully financed. “I don’t want to…
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Iran police swiftly crush protest. Video
EDITOR’S NOTE: Iranian authorities have barred journalists for international news organizations from reporting on the streets and ordered them to stay in their offices. This report is based on the accounts of witnesses reached in Iran and official statements carried on Iranian media. A flood of security forces using tear gas and clubs quickly overwhelmed…
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US nixes 40 percent cuts at climate change talks
MEXICO CITY – President Barack Obama’s climate envoy dismissed recommendations that the United States and other developed countries reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases 40 percent by 2020. “The 40 percent below 1990 (levels) is something which in our judgment is not necessary, and not feasible given where we’re starting from, so it’s not in…
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Investigators seek why automated train didn’t stop
WASHINGTON – Federal investigators planned to test the automated controls for Metro trains for the first time Wednesday, looking to see why the computerized system designed to prevent such disasters failed. At the time of the crash, the train was controlled primarily by computer, but there is evidence that the operator tried to slow it…
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S.C. governor: ‘I hurt a lot of different folks.’ Video
COLUMBIA, S.C. – After going AWOL for seven days, Gov. Mark Sanford admitted Wednesday that he had secretly flown to Argentina to visit a woman with whom he was having an affair. Wiping away tears, he apologized to his family and gave up a national Republican Party post, but was silent on whether he would…
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HHS secretary to press lawmakers on health care
WASHINGTON – Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told lawmakers Wednesday that President Barack Obama is willing to listen to suggestions on how to pay for a health care overhaul, as long as they don’t increase the deficit. “The president is open to good ideas about how we finance health reform,” she said in…
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Sanford is just the latest GOP rising star to crash
WASHINGTON – South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford’s admission of an affair Wednesday dealt a potentially fatal blow to the political career of a rising Republican star, and it’s only the latest stumble of many in the early jockeying to lead the GOP back from oblivion in 2012. A number of potential Republican presidential candidates recently…
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Money one factor in Jobs getting a liver
A celebrity like Apple CEO Steve Jobs scores a rare organ transplant and the world wonders: Did he game the system? The rich have plenty of advantages that others don’t. But winning the “transplant lottery” involves more than the size of your wallet – and true medical need. A Tennessee hospital has confirmed that it…
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Fed mulls tweaks to economic revival programs
WASHINGTON – With signs the economy is improving but still fragile, Federal Reserve policymakers are considering whether some programs intended to drive down rates on mortgages and other consumer debt should be slowed down. Most economists predict that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues, who resumed meeting Wednesday morning, won’t launch any bold new…