All Trought about politic at Ukraine

The votes, in the Senate Finance Committee, underscored divisions among Democrats and were a setback for President Obama, who has endorsed the public plan as a way to “keep insurance companies honest.”

The first proposal, by Senator John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, was rejected 15 to 8, as five Democrats joined all Republicans on the panel in voting no. The second proposal, by Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, was defeated 13 to 10, with three Democrats voting no.

The ... Read more »

The Food and Drug Administration, meanwhile, has warned consumers not to use products marketed for bodybuilding that contain steroids or steroidlike substances, or that claim to increase testosterone. The agency says users risk liver failure, kidney damage and other serious health problems.< ... Read more »

The contest pits two major companies, Edwards Lifesciences and Medtronic. Analysts estimate a market for the product that could exceed $1.5 billion within six years. But if the valves catch on, their benefits for the nation’s aging population could be substantial — even if the impact on the nation’s health care bill may be hard to calculate.

The new valves — which make it possible to repair the heart without the rigors of chest-opening surgery — have been available in Europe for about 18 months, with sales of about $100 million split about evenly last year between the two companies. While doctors say that the early results have been promi ... Read more »

The annual survey of state Medicaid directors, conducted for the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, found that the program had been spared the worst effects of massive state budget shortfalls because of federal aid in the stimulus package. But it also revealed grave concerns about what will happen when that relief dries up at the close of 2010.

As unemployment surged, enrollment in state Medicaid programs grew by an average of 5.4 percent in the previous fiscal year, the highest rate in six years, according to the Kaiser survey. In eight states, the growth exceeded 10 percent.

Last year’s average growth was well above the 3.6 percent that had been forecast by the ... Read more »

The 13-to-10 vote followed party lines, with two exceptions. Senator Kent Conrad, Democrat of North Dakota, voted for the restrictions. Senator Olympia J. Snowe, Republican of Maine, voted against them.

The showdown over abortion came as the committee toiled for a sixth day on the legislation that is intended to provide coverage for millions of Americans while slowing the growth of health care costs. Under the bill, the government would help low- and middle-income people buy insurance by providing subsidies in the form of tax credits.

The bill, written by the chairman of the Finance Committee, Senator ... Read more »

Swiss private insurers are required to offer coverage to all citizens, regardless of age or medical history. And those people, in turn, are obligated to buy health insurance.

That is why many academics who have studied the Swiss health care system have pointed to this Alpine nation of about 7.5 million as a model that delivers much of what Washington is aiming to accomplish — without the contentious option of a government-run health insurance plan.

In Congress, the Senate Finance Committee is dealing with legislation proposed by its chairman, ... Read more »

For starters, there are the Bosnians, riven into two barely functioning administrative entities, a Bosnian Serb Republic and a Muslim-Croat Federation. If they have dreams left 14 years after war killed 100,000 people and reduced millions to refugees, those dreams center on Europe.

But, while Sarajevo is a mere hour's flight from Vienna, or Rome, the distance is hard to cover. With little progress on reforms, Bosnians were left out of a recent plan to free up visas for Balkan visitors to the European Union.

Standing outside the Austrian Embassy, Nedeljko Maric, a 42-year-old engineer, pondered the visa he finally secured to travel in Europe. It took two long visits, and a week for his papers to be processed. He feels "a second class citizen," with Bosnian membership of the E.U. "more a dream than a reality."

Whether his plight, and the vacuum of Bosnia's sour politics, eases depends in part on the outcome of the vote Friday in Ireland - another place that knows the ... Read more »

JERUSALEM — Israel said Wednesday that it would release 20 Palestinian women from its jails in exchange for a videotape of a captured Israeli soldier that would prove that he was alive.Skip to next paragraphEnlarge This Image
Mahmud Hams/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Israel said Wednesday that for video of a captive soldier, Gilad Shalit, it would release 20 Palestinian women, including Fatima Yunis Zaq, above, a terrorism suspect.
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Sergeant Gilad Schalit.



The soldier, Gilad Shalit, was seized by the Islamic group Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups in 2006 in a cross-border raid and taken into Gaza.
The prisoner release offer, announced Wednesday by the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was the first significant sign of progress in negotiations about him since Mr. Netanyahu took office in March.
Israeli and Palestinian officials said t ... Read more »

SARAJEVO — In Bosnia and Herzegovina - scene of Europe's bloodiest recent war, and an alternately wild, entrancing, and deeply divided place - the need for sharper, more focused European foreign policy could hardly be clearer.

For starters, there are the Bosnians, riven into two barely functioning administrative entities, a Bosnian Serb Republic and a Muslim-Croat Federation. If they have dreams left 14 years after war killed 100,000 people and reduced millions to refugees, those dreams center on Europe.

But, while Sarajevo is a mere hour's flight from Vienna, or Rome, the distance is hard to cover. With little progress on reforms, Bosnians were left out of a recent plan to free up visas for Balkan visitors to the European Union.

Standing outside the Austrian Embassy, Nedeljko Maric, a 42-year-old engineer, pondered the visa he finally secured to travel in Europe. It took two long visits, and a week for his papers to be processed. ... Read more »

HONG KONG — Companies that import solar panels to the United States are facing up to $70 million in unexpected tariffs.

A view of the town of Hoi An in the aftermath of Typhoon Ketsana on Thursday. function getSharePasskey() { return 'ex=1412136000&en=ee001e09c96acb87&ei=5124';} function getShareURL() { return encodeURIComponent('http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/02/world/asia/02typhoon.html'); } function getShareHeadline() { return encodeURIComponent('After Typhoon, Tourists in Vietnam Venture Out'); } function getShareDescription() { return encodeURIComponent('The town of Hoi An, which is popular with tourists, is returning to life, two days after Typhoon Ketsana killed at least 92 there.'); } function getShareKeywords() { return encodeURIComponent('Travel and Vacations,Typhoons,Hoi An (Vietnam),Vietnam'); } function getShareSection() { return encodeURIComponent('world'); } function getShareSectionDisplay() { return encodeURIComponent('International / Asia Pacific'); } f ... Read more »

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama is confronting a split among his closest advisers on Afghanistan, reflecting divisions in his own party over whether to send in thousands more U.S. troops and complicating his efforts to adopt a war policy he can sell to a public grown weary of the 8-year-old conflict.

With top military commanders and congressional Republicans pushing for a troop increase, Obama pressed key members of his national security team Wednesday for their views during an intense, three-hour session in a packed White House Situation Room.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the discussion focused on the political and security situation on the ground, according to an administration official, with military commanders detailing the gains made by the insurgency and top diplomats discussing the Afghan election results that were marred by fraud claims.

In an interview w ... Read more »

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency took steps Wednesday to control the emissions blamed for global warming from power plants, factories and refineries for the first time.

The EPA proposal would require polluters to reduce six greenhouse gases by installing the best available technology and improving energy efficiency whenever a facility is significantly changed or built. The rule applies to any industrial plant that emits at least 25,000 tons of greenhouse gases a year.

These large sources are responsible for 70 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions — mainly carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels — that are released in the U.S., the EPA said.

"By using the power and authority of the Clean Air Act, we can begin reducing emissions from the nation's largest greenhouse gas emitting facilities without placing an undue burden on the businesses that make up the vast majority of our economy," EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said. "We know the corner coff ... Read more »

The United States and five other world powers went to the table with Tehran Thursday to discuss its nuclear program, but senior administration officials said the U.S. would not push for sanctions against Iran at the Geneva talks and is prepared to talk one-on-one with Iranian negotiators if such engagement appears "useful." 

The officials also said that while gaining access to inspect Iran's uranium enrichment facility near Qom is "critically important," the U.S. won't walk away from negotiations if Iran refuses.

"Tomorrow is the negotiations track and that is the thrust," a senior official said ahead of the talks. "The thrust is dealing with this nuclear program and trying to get a process underway to address the growing international concern. These will not be easy talks." 

The talks were expected to last the full day. 

If the leader of the U.S. delegation, William Burns, decides direct talks with Iran would move U.S. objectives forward ... Read more »

President Obama met with his national security team Wednesday but did not make a decision on America's reshaped military strategy for the Afghanistan war. 

The meeting -- the first of a series of sessions -- took place in the Situation Room as the White House fended off charges that the president has been stalling on Gen. Stanley McChrystal's request for more troops. 

Obama will not make any decision on an Afghan strategy for at least a few weeks, the White House announced Wednesday night. Obama will reportedly meet again with his national security team to discuss Afghanistan and Pakistan on Oct. 7.

Wednesday's closed-door meeting marked the first time the president has had any interaction with McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, since the general made the request for up to 40,000 troops. 

Obama spent three hours meeting with staff, according to a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The offic ... Read more »

When it comes to national security, President Obama has a surprising amount of support from the right. 

Despite a recent outbreak of conservative-led criticism toward Obama's handling of the Afghanistan war, the Democratic president has won plaudits from Republicans for his leadership on military matters. 

They roundly reject his economic, environmental, health care and regulatory policies. But until two weeks ago, when Obama demurred at sending more troops to Afghanistan, conservatives largely applauded his conduct of the war -- particularly his early deployment of 17,000 troops and his replacement of Gen. David McKiernan with Gen. Stanley McChrystal. 

"He moved much more rapidly to replace a commander he was dissatisfied with, who was not performing well, than Bush did in his tenure, and all of that looked very good and very promising," said Frederick Kagan, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. 

Karl Rove, former adv ... Read more »

Up against a midnight deadline to avoid a government shutdown, the Senate passed legislation Wednesday that temporarily would extend spending on most federal programs at current levels while raising Congress' budget by 6 percent.

The measure, approved by a 62-38 vote that sends it to President Obama's desk, would keep the government open for one more month. Obama is virtually certain to sign it before day's end.

The legislation also would patch over problems in the struggling postal service and pay for soon-to-expire highway programs for an additional month as well. The stopgap measure is needed because Congress has failed to complete work on the 11 remaining spending bills for agency budgets.

The community activist group ACORN was in line for another hit as Democrats added language saying the organization could not receive federal dollars under the stopgap measure or any prior legislation. ACORN has received federal funds for providing counseling to homeowner ... Read more »

The fate of a government-run health insurance plan may rest in President Obama's hands after the Senate Finance Committee rejected amendments that would include the so-called "public option" in its version of health care reform legislation.

Liberal Democrats failed twice on Tuesday to include a government-run insurance option in the legislation before the committee, the last of five congressional panels completing work on the president's top domestic priority. 

Once touted by Obama as essential in "keeping insurance companies honest," the government plan was blasted by Senate Republicans and moderate Democrats, some of whom argued it would lead to a single-payer system.

The vote to strike down two separate amendments underscored the disagreement among Democrats over the necessity of a public option. Whether Obama will continue to fight for it remains to be s ... Read more »