Independent Sen. Joseph Lieberman said Tuesday he will oppose final approval of any health care bill that has a government-run public health insurance option.Individual states would have until 2014 to decide whether they wanted to opt out, according to Reid, a Nevada Democrat facing tough re-election prospects next year. Opting out would require action by state legislatures, two Democratic sources told CNN on Tuesday. If the state's governor vetoed the bill, the legislature could still enact it by overriding the ...

After 16 hours of debate, Argentina's Senate passed a controversial reform law Saturday that critics say targets media outlets critical of the government. The 44-24 vote is a victory for Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who had pushed to change the way the media operates in the South American nation after her party suffered devastating political losses earlier this year. Kirchner blamed media coverage, especially by conglomerate Grupo Clarin, for her party's defeats. The law approved by the Senate ...

The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee unveiled a summary of his long-awaited health care reform bill Wednesday, setting the stage for a legislative showdown on President Obama's top domestic priority. The bill crafted by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Montana, would cost $856 billion over 10 years and mandate insurance coverage for every American. The bill -- released with no Republican support -- would not add to the federal deficit, Baucus said in a written statement. The measure drops the ...

"Obviously, first of all, this conversation never took place. ... OK?" So began a phone call in which convicted swindler Bernard Madoff told colleagues how to dance around questions from the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to an audiotape and transcript released Wednesday by the Massachusetts secretary of state's office. "You know, you don't have to be too brilliant with these guys, because you don't have to be," Madoff said, referring to SEC investigators. Authorities continue to unravel ...

The accused came from all walks of life: Retirees, dads and twentysomethings. An engineer, a business owner and an auto worker. A man in a wheelchair. Men in need of Spanish or Farsi translators. About 40 men somberly entered a classroom on a recent Saturday morning. About half of them wore shiny wedding bands. All had tried to buy a prostitute's services and were caught by police. It was their first offense, and a county court referred them to a ...

Blog fans in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, saw PittGirl as their masked superhero -- a comedian and local commentator who jibed the mayor without reserve and ranted freely about her hatred of pigeons. But despite her effort to keep her real name secret, people started to figure out who PittGirl was. Feeling pressure to take control of her identity before someone else outed her, PittGirl on Wednesday posted pictures of herself on her blog and introduced readers to her real-world self: Virginia ...

When he's not canvassing the Afghan backcountry in his beat-up Toyota mini-bus, Ramazan Bashardost, 48, arrives at his presidential campaign headquarters — a gray tent — at 5:30 each morning. It sits across the street from the Afghan parliament and is open to the public, without the gun-wielding bodyguards that surround other high-profile candidates. "My name means 'friend of humans'," he offers, by way of explanation. "I am here for everyone." The ethnic Hazara member of parliament has made ...

Authorities have identified what is believed to be the wreckage of a Merpati Nusantara Airlines plane that disappeared shortly after takeoff in eastern Indonesia over the weekend. The three were arrested in the western Iranian city of Marivan, the deputy governor of Kurdistan province, Iraj Hassanzadeh, told the Fars News Agency. Earlier, Swiss diplomats in Iran and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington had urged Iran to provide information on the hikers. "Obviously, we are concerned," she said. ...

Iran confirmed Tuesday the arrest of three American hikers who crossed into the country from neighboring Iraq and said they have been charged with "illegal entry," a semi-official news agency reported. The three were arrested in the western Iranian city of Marivan, the deputy governor of Kurdistan province, Iraj Hassanzadeh, told the Fars News Agency. Earlier, Swiss diplomats in Iran and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington had urged Iran to provide information on the hikers. "Obviously, we ...

Six months into the Obama Administration, a clear pattern of legislative pragmatism has emerged: focus on winning the big votes and don't fret too much about losing some of the details. Working at a furious pace, Obama's team has racked up by almost any measure one of the most successful early records in modern memory, especially if you focus on big scoreboard numbers and not the detailed stats. But each of his team's major accomplishments — ...