UK-World Summary
U.S. House passes sweeping healthcare overhaul
WASHINGTON - The U.S. House of Representatives approved a sweeping healthcare reform bill on Saturday, backing the biggest health policy changes in four decades and handing President Barack Obama a crucial victory. On a narrow 220-215 vote, including the support of one Republican, the House endorsed a bill that would expand coverage to nearly all Americans and bar insurance practices such as refusing to cover people with pre-existing conditions.
In eastern Europe, people pine for socialism
BELENE, Bulgaria - In the dense forests of the idyllic Danube island of Persin, home to the endangered sea eagle and the pygmy cormorant, lie the ghastly remains of a communist-era death camp. Hundreds "enemies of the regime" perished from beatings, malnutrition and exhaustion in 1949-59 in Bulgaria's Belene concentration camp, where dead bodies were fed to pigs.
Obama wraps up Afghan review, eyes final options
WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama is wrapping up deliberations on war strategy in Afghanistan and is considering final Pentagon options that include sending about 30,000 more troops, officials said on Saturday. A deployment of that size would be less than the 40,000-troop increase recommended by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, but more than many of Obama's Democratic allies may support.
Market attack in NW Pakistan kills at least 8
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - A suicide bomber killed an anti-Taliban village mayor and seven other people in an attack on the outskirts of Pakistan's volatile city of Peshawar on Sunday, officials said. The bomber blew himself up as Abdul Malik, mayor of Matni village, was standing in a busy market. Matni is close to the lawless tribal lands where Islamist militants are active.
Saudi Arabia says regains area seized by Yemen rebels
DUBAI - Saudi Arabia has regained control of territory seized by Yemeni rebels in an incursion last week, a senior official was quoted as saying, as the kingdom becomes more entangled in conflict to its south. Saudi Arabia launched air strikes on rebels in northern Yemen last week after the Shi'ite Muslim insurgents crossed the border into the kingdom and said they had taken control of an area called Jabal Dukhan.
Thousands of Japanese protest U.S. base plan
GINOWAN, Japan - Thousands of Japanese gathered in sweltering heat on the southern island of Okinawa on Sunday to demand that a U.S. Marine base be moved out of the region, days ahead of a visit by President Barack Obama. The row over the re-siting of the Futenma air base threatens to stall a realignment of the 47,000 U.S. military personnel in Japan and sour defence ties between the two countries, seen as key in a region home to a rising China and an unpredictable North Korea.
Dalai Lama begins visit to disputed India state
TAWANG, India - Thousands of Buddhist monks and supporters welcomed Tibet's exiled spiritual leader on Sunday to a remote Indian region also claimed by China, a trip that has renewed tensions between the Asian giants. The Dalai Lama arrived by helicopter in this remote Buddhist enclave nestled in the icy folds of the eastern Himalayas, where he had passed through after fleeing Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.
Honduran rivals signal new bid to solve crisis
TEGUCIGALPA - Honduras' ousted president and de facto leader gave signs they would try again on Saturday to form a unity government to guide the country out of a four-month crisis after the process collapsed a day earlier. President Manuel Zelaya, a refugee in his own country in the Brazilian Embassy, early on Friday declared dead a pact to end the crisis, while de facto leader Roberto Micheletti said he would form a new government without Zelaya's participation.
Lebanon's Hariri set to form government with Hezbollah
BEIRUT - Lebanon's Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri will announce a new national unity government to include Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah in the next few days, politicians said on Saturday. Lebanon has been without a functioning government since Hariri led his coalition, backed by the United States and Saudi Arabia, to victory in a June parliamentary election against Hezbollah and its allies.
Iran says over 100 people detained at anti-U.S. rally
TEHRAN - Iranian police detained more than 100 people for "disturbing public order" during a rally this week to mark the anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. embassy, the official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday. Security forces clashed with supporters of Iran's opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi in Tehran on Wednesday when an annual state-organised rally marking the 30th anniversary of the storming of the U.S. embassy turned violent.