Dem: Health-care bill likely will pass

Dem: Health-care bill likely will pass

WASHINGTON

A top House Democrat said Sunday he believes Congress will pass a health care bill, but three fellow Democrats who opposed overhaul legislation last fall aren’t committing themselves to backing President Barack Obama’s late push.

The House and the Senate approved different version of the legislation by narrow margins.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who heads the House Democrats’ campaign team, said House members are waiting to see the final plan and how the Congressional Budget Office analyzes its budget implications before deciding to support it.

Violence in Nigeria kills more than 200

JOS, Nigeria

Rioters armed with machetes slaughtered more than 200 people overnight Sunday as religious violence flared anew between Christians and Muslims in central Nigeria, witnesses said. Hundreds of people fled their homes, fearing reprisal attacks.

The bodies of the dead — including many women and children — lined dusty streets in three mostly Christian villages south of the regional capital of Jos, local journalists and a civil rights group said. They said at least 200 bodies had been counted by Sunday afternoon.

The killings represent the latest religious violence in an area once known as Nigeria’s top tourist destination, adding to the tally of thousands already killed in the last decade in the name of religious and political ambitions.

Togo opposition claims fraud in vote

LOME, Togo

Togo’s top opposition candidate was pelted with tear gas for a second time Sunday as he vowed to take to the streets every day in protest of what he says was an election rigged to favor the son of the country’s longtime dictator.

“I am ready to die,” opposition leader Jean-Pierre Fabre said a few minutes before walking outside the party’s headquarters before a column of anti-riot police. “We’re going to make them exhaust their stock of tear gas. We cannot let this go on, otherwise they’ll hang on to power for the next 200 years.”

Provisional results released late Saturday show Fabre lost to current President Faure Gnassingbe.

Minority companies get less stimulus

WASHINGTON

Hispanic and black businesses are receiving a disproportionately small number of federal stimulus contracts, creating a rising chorus of demands for the Obama administration to be more inclusive and more closely track who receives government-financed work.

Latinos and blacks have faced obstacles to winning government contracts long before the stimulus. They own 6.8 and 5.2 percent of all businesses, respectively, according to census figures. Yet Latino-owned business have received only 1.7 percent of $46 billion in federal stimulus contracts recorded in U.S. government data, and black-owned businesses have received just 1.1 percent.

That pot of money is just a small fraction of the $862 billion economic stimulus law.

Biden heads for tour of Middle East

WASHINGTON

Vice President Joe Biden has left Washington for a five-day tour of the Middle East, including Israel, the Palestinian territories and Jordan.

In Jerusalem on Tuesday, Biden will have meetings with Israeli President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Tzipi Livni, chair of the Kadima Party.

Biden’s visit Wednesday to the Palestinian territories includes meetings in Ramallah with Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and President Mahmoud Abbas.

Associated Press