Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/8110
8A – Daily News – Saturday, March 20, 2010 WORLD BRIEFING Lawmakers tilt unmistakably Obama’s way WASHINGTON (AP) — One by one, Democratic fence- sitters began choosing sides Fri- day, and the long, turbulent struggle over landmark health care legislation tilted unmistak- ably in President Barack Obama’s direction. In full campaign mode, his voice rising, the president all but claimed victory, declaring to a cheering audience in Vir- ginia, ‘‘We are going to fix health care in America.’’ With the showdown vote set for Sunday in the House, Obama decided to make one final, personal appeal to rank- and-file Democrats, arranging a Saturday visit to the Capitol. Republicans, unanimous in opposition to the bill, com- plained anew about its cost and reach. Under a complex — and controversial — procedure the Democrats have devised, a sin- gle vote probably will be held to send one bill to Obama for his signature and to ship a sec- ond, fix-it measure to the Sen- ate for final passage in the next several days. Democratic leaders and Obama focused last-minute lobbying efforts on two sepa- rate groups of Democrats, 37 who voted against an earlier bill in the House and 40 who voted for it only after first making sure it would include strict abortion limits that now have been modified. Some things Obama said would be in the health bill aren’t WASHINGTON (AP) — It was a bold response to skyrock- eting health insurance premi- ums. President Barack Obama would give federal authorities the power to block unreason- able rate hikes. Yet when Democrats unveiled the final, incarnation of their health care bill this week, the proposal was nowhere to be found. Ditto with several Republi- can ideas that Obama had said he wanted to include after a televised bipartisan summit last month, including a plan by Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma to send investigators disguised as patients to hospitals in search of waste, fraud and abuse. And those ‘‘special deals’’ that Obama railed against and said he wanted to eliminate? With the exception of two of the most notorious — extra Medic- aid money for Nebraska and a carve-out for Florida seniors faced with losing certain extra Medicare benefits — they are all still there. For the White House, these were the latest unfulfilled com- mitments related to Obama’s health care proposal, starting with his campaign promise to let C-SPAN cameras film nego- tiations over the bill. Obama also backed down with little apparent regret on his support for a new government-run insurance plan as part of the legislation, a liberal priority. Diplomats call on Israel and Palestinians to return to talks MOSCOW (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rod- ham Clinton suggested Friday that the United States and Israel have found a way around the worst disagreement the two allies have faced in years while international diplomats set goals for new U.S.-backed peace talks aimed at establish- ing an independent Palestinian state. The so-called Quartet group of Mideast negotiators met in the Russian capital to set the stage for peace talks in which the United States would be a go-between. Those indirect talks would be the first under the Democratic Obama admin- istration and the hawkish Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. At a news conference after the meeting, Clinton spoke approvingly of indications Netanyahu is ready to address U.S. concerns about new Jewish housing that complicates peace efforts. ‘‘What I heard from the prime minister in response to the requests we made was use- ful and productive,’’ she said, ‘‘and we are continuing our dis- cussions with him and his gov- ernment.’’ That was a far cry from Clin- ton’s earlier condemnation of the housing plan in east Jerusalem as an insult, deliv- ered for maximum effect during a visit to Jerusalem by Vice President Joe Biden. Clinton had a curt conversation with Netanyahu a week ago in which she laid out U.S. expectations from here, including a rollback to the housing plan, a gesture of good faith to the Palestinians and an express statement that all issues dividing Israel and the Palestinians, including the fate of divided Jerusalem, remain part of the negotiations. Iraqis look to drawdown date with hope and trepidation BAGHDAD (AP) — Seven years after the first bombs in the war to oust Saddam Hussein, Iraqis went about their business Friday with little observance of the anniversary, looking to the future with a mixture of trepida- tion and hope. Perhaps more important in the minds of many was the ongoing wait for final results from the country’s second nationwide parliamentary elec- tion. The milestone will deter- mine who will oversee Iraq as U.S. forces go home, but could also point the direction the frag- ile democracy will take down the road — deeper into the sec- tarian divide that followed Sad- dam’s fall, or toward a more secular, inclusive rule. ‘‘Now we have democracy and freedom, but the cost was dire and Iraqis have paid that price,’’ said Raid Abdul-Zahra, 38, a technician in Najaf. Prime Minister Nouri al- Maliki’s coalition appears to be ahead in the tight race. With almost 90 percent of the vote counted as of Thursday, his coalition was leading in 7 of Iraq’s 18 provinces compared to 5 provinces for his closest rival, the Iraqiya coalition led by sec- ular Shiite Ayad Allawi. Al- Maliki’s coalition also has about 40,000 votes more in the overall vote count. Many, especially among the country’s Sunni-minority that dominated Iraq during Sad- dam’s rule, blame the U.S. for the sectarian violence that erupted after the invasion. Pope’s letter over abuse cover-ups faces critical audience DUBLIN (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI addresses Ireland on Saturday in a letter apologiz- ing for the sex abuse scandal here — a message being watched closely by Catholics from Boston to Berlin to see if it also acknowledges decades of Vatican-approved cover-ups. The church is only beginning to come to terms with decades of child abuse in its parishes and schools. The scandals first emerged in Canada and Aus- tralia in the 1980s, followed by Ireland in the 1990s, the United States this decade and, in recent months, Benedict’s German homeland. Victims’ rights activists say that to begin mending the church’s battered image, Bene- dict’s message — his first pas- toral letter on child abuse in the church — must break his silence on the role of the Catholic hierarchy in shielding pedophile clergy from prosecu- tion. That includes abuses com- mitted decades ago under the pope’s watch, when he was Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger of Munich, as well as the pon- tiff’s role in hushing up the scandals. As leader of the Congrega- tion for the Doctrine of the Faith, Ratzinger was responsi- ble for a 2001 Vatican edict that instructed bishops to report all cases of child abuse to Vatican authorities under strict secrecy; it made no mention of reporting crimes to police. Judge orders renegotiation of settlement for WTC illnesses NEW YORK (AP) — A fed- eral judge on Friday rejected a legal settlement of more than a half-billion dollars for people sickened by ash and dust from the World Trade Center, saying the deal to compensate 10,000 police officers, firefighters and other laborers didn’t contain enough money for the workers. ‘‘In my judgment, this settle- ment is not enough,’’ said U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein. The judge also said he was concerned too much of the deal would be eaten up by legal fees and that ground zero responders were going to be pressured into signing on before they knew how much they stood to receive. The settlement proposal would have given the workers $575 million to $657 million, but each person’s amount was based on a complicated point system that would give some workers only a few thousand dollars while others might qual- ify for $1 million or more. A third or more of the amount set aside for the work- ers was expected to go to their lawyers. Some plaintiffs had agreed at the start of the case to give as much as 40 percent of any judgment to cover fees and expenses.